THE future of Granville Street car park has been revealed in one picture but Swindon Council is keeping other plans and models under wraps.

The artist's impression shows the view of the £80m redevelopment from the top of the Brunel Centre.

Details released by the council yesterday include two "flying bridge" walkways leaving the high ground and going in to the second floor of the Brunel Centre.

The development will also have two to three storeys of shops ringing the site and a 15-storey residential tower.

The tower could have a communal garden on the third floor while other buildings could include rooftop restaurants.

Havelock Square as it presently is would disappear to be incorporated in what the council hopes will become a sweeping vista up to Commercial Road and Regent Street.

New shops will line Commercial Road and all parking will be hidden underground.

Conservative leader Roderick Bluh (Dorcan) said that the council selected Modus Properties as its preferred developer for the town centre site but was holding back on more detailed announcements until contracts were signed.

The five-acre site includes two acres of council owned land.

Coun Bluh said the rest would be acquired through negotiations or, if necessary, compulsory possession orders.

"The full details will come out in two months," Coun Bluh said.

"I'd love to show you more now. There's no doubt in our minds it will go ahead. We could release it all but we have been advised that it would be wrong to do so.

"Until we have gone into all the contracts we don't want to show more than one visual." Coun Bluh said that the council did not want to reveal detailed plans while they were still subject to negotiation.

But he could reveal some details.

Aspen House in Temple Street is expected to come down and Iceland is to go as well. The Brunel statue will be moved from the front of the Brunel Centre, but no firm plans have been made for its final destination.

The underground car park will have 700 spaces 150 for the residential development and 550 for shoppers.

Stones from the Baptist Tabernacle church are scheduled to return, probably towards the Regent Street end of the development.

They could feature as part of a gallery or museum including Swindon's famous modern art collection.

Coun Bluh said: "We will have compulsory purchase order powers if people don't want to play.

"It will be everything south of Temple Street. We should be able to conclude the negotiations within the next two to three months.

"Hopefully building will start on the site in early 2008.

"The target completion is March 2010."

He said the council accepted that there could be disruption to the centre of town while building was going on.

"There will be cranes all over the place," Coun Bluh said.

"From 2009 to 2010, Swindon is going to be a cluttered place but people are going to have to see that as progress.

"It's got to be a place people talk about in five years. If we haven't done that, we have failed.

"We have pledged to make things better and we are keeping our promises.

"We believe that this will put Swindon back on the map for retailing."

New Swindon Company chief executive Peter James said that he Modus plan tied in with other regeneration projects on the books.

He said the developers would not have spent £100,000 on their proposals if they were not serious about being involved.

New vision has a place for history

THE Baptist Tabernacle has been included in plans for the Regent Street end of the Granville Street redevelopment.

Coun Roderick Bluh said he was still waiting for a specialist stonemason's report in to the condition of the stone faade which has been dismantled and lying in a site in Northampton.

Subject to them passing the test, Conservative leader Roderick Bluh says they will be coming home.

Coun Bluh (Con, Dorcan) said he is "optimistic" the stonemason would find the tabernacle faade in good condition.

"It is our intention to restore the tabernacle if it is possible," Coun Bluh said.

"It's a very symbolic part of Swindon's heritage."

The Baptist Tabernacle, pictured right, in Regent Circus was demolished in 1978 and the portico bought by artist Stanley Frost.

After Mr Frost failed to gain planning permission to rebuild the portico at his home at Bell Farm in Brokenborough, near Malmesbury, the stones were bought by Neil Taylor, who came up against the same problems at his home in Northamptonshire.

What remains of the landmark, built in 1886, are six columns, the roof, the faade and the stone window surrounds in all, 260 tons of Bath stone.

Mr Taylor said last year that if he were to sell, it would only be for the building to re-erected in Swindon.

How it will fit together

THE Granville Street redevelopment is one of seven areas to be made over under Swindon's regeneration regime.

The New Swindon Company was formed in 2002 to transform the town centre.

Chief executive Peter James, said work was progressing on the other six zones being converted under the auspices of the company the North Star Village, the Campus, Swindon Central, the Exchange, the Arena and the Promenade.

It has its work cut out. Coun Bluh described parts of Swindon's town centre as "almost third world".

"One of the dreadful problems of Swindon are all the service yards you have to walk through to get to the shops," he said.

"It's almost third world in places. We have to change."

Plan never got off the ground

THE new scheme for the Granville Street redevelopment is not the first grand plan to be launched for the town centre.

In 2004, Brunel centre owner Westfield unveiled a £150m masterplan for the shopping precinct.

It included 100 shops, a food hall, a 10-screen cinema complex, and extra parking for 1,400 cars.

But a year later, the Australian developer sold the centre to Capital Investment Trust for £130m.

CIT backed out of the plans, saying they were not viable and that the town centre did not have the demand to justify such a massive expansion.

The end of the plans were welcomed by Havelock Street businesses, who feared being swallowed up by the bigger centre.

The overhaul of the Brunel Centre, pictured above, was a central part of the New Swindon Company's plans for improving the town.

The shopping centre was earmarked for an extension as part of The Hub, one of seven zones highlighted by the NSC.