“A narrow route” to bringing one of Swindon’s most important historic buildings back to use has been approved by the borough council’s Labour cabinet.

But the authority will not allocate £1 million to the project raised from selling off car parks in Old Town, as proposed by a former Conservative cabinet member.

The current cabinet member for heritage art and culture councillor Marina Strinkovsky presented what the council calls 'A Route Map for the Mechanics' Institute' for approval.

It says that finding a mixture of uses, including educational uses for the building in Emlyn Square, and restoring and refurbishing it in stages, as money becomes available, and resolving the issues with the owner Forefront Estates, which has let the building moulder for 20 years, is a viable plan.

Cllr Strinkovsky said: “There are no illusions that bringing the Mechanics’ back into use will be easy, but you miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take.

“We are going to do that, we see a narrow path forward through this issue.

“The Mechanics’ is an amazing building, in many ways it is the heart of Swindon and it needs to start beating again.”

Leader of the council Councillor Jim Robbins added: “We are not flush with spare money, but this issue is brought up often by residents, it is hugely important. And using this route map is the right thing to do.”

The cabinet also considered a motion that had been put to full council in October by Councillor Dale Heenan - who had been responsible for the Mechanics’ when he was cabinet member for the town centre.

The motion would have required the council to use the £1m it is expected to gain from the sale of two car parks in Old Town near The Corn Exchange, as part of the sale of the whole building, into a plan to get the Mechanics’ Institute back into use.

And it also said the council should resolve the issues with ownership within 90 days.

Cllr Strinkovsky said the members should vote down the motion as it “confuses movement with progress”.

The cabinet member for finance Councillor Kevin Small said the sale of the car parks would not realise £1m in extra funds as it would have to be offset against lost revenue from the car parks.

Cllr Robbins added: “I feel this is a political motion. And it seems a bit rich of the Conservatives to require us to resolve the ownership matters in 90 days when they had 20 years in power to do something and didn’t get very far.”

The motion was defeated.