Earlier this week I had the pleasure of hosting the quarterly Heritage Forum, where heritage organisations from across Swindon come together to discuss the town’s ongoing projects.

We try to rotate the venue for each of the forums. We have had meetings at the Wroughton Science Museum, Carriage Works and STEAM, but this week we had the honour of being hosted at the Health Hydro in Milton Road.

This historic building is one of the key regeneration projects in the town centre and its refurbishment is already underway.

Experts in heritage restoration, Fourth Street, have been employed by the Council to come up with the plans and designs for the future of this historic swimming location and I must say they look excellent.

While we cannot do everything all at once, due to various financial constraints, phase one is quickly approaching.

Early next year the Hydro will close in order to start the refurbishment work. This will see improvements made to the main entrance, changing rooms, main pool and gym area.

This work will also set the stage for future phases of development which will see improvements to the small pool and the Turkish baths and spa.

It is important we bring this building back to a high standard to make sure it remains in use for current and future generations.

The first phase of work is expected to bring in a 64 per cent increase in use of the Health Hydro as well as improving the quality of experience people will receive.

While I know many people want to see the work carried out more quickly, including bringing the small pool back into use, it is important to understand the funding issues we have.

The £6.5m already secured, largely thanks to £5m from the Government’s Towns Fund, is only enough for this first phase but we are already looking into ways we can fund the future improvements.

However, the Health Hydro isn’t the only heritage building we are concentrating on as part of this 5 year project.

Inside The Works area of the town – the new name for the Heritage Action Zone that encompasses the whole area around Swindon’s historic railway village - we are progressing well with the Carriage Works project. If you’ve walked by the building in recent weeks you’ll have seen new scaffolding up to improve the exterior of the building.

What isn’t entirely visible to most of us, is the work being done to create two commercial units on the ground floor, a media suite for Create Studios and a research centre for the University of Bath.

We are hoping to see these projects completed in spring next year and I cannot wait to see the area start to thrive with new students and workers.

You can find out more on the heritage regeneration projects on our website: www.swindon.gov.uk/towncentreregeneration