Coate Water viewed from Great Western HospitalCONTROVERSIAL plans for a university at Coate Water have taken centre stage at a meeting about Swindon's future.

Professor Glynis Breakwell, the vice-chancellor of Bath University, told the gathering Bath would be proud to build a university in the town.

She said: "Swindon has been seeking a university for over 30 years and we will be proud to have a university here.

"It will bring with it wider economic benefits for the community."

But she made it clear to David Fenton, the head of the Local Plan meeting, which will shape the town for the 21st century, that it is to be the Coate site or nothing.

"The scale of the development of the university is fundamental in determining its financial viability," she said.

"We did not arrive at the Coate site lightly. We did an extensive search for the site.

"Coate is the site that we need. It is essential that we should be co-located with Great Western Hospital."

And Les Durrant, the planning consultant for the project, said he hoped the planning inspector would see the benefit of a university at Coate Water.

"The inspector will have a lot of information to consider," he said. "But we hope people will see that we have given this development a lot of thought."

However, not everyone at yesterday's meeting, in the Pilgrim Centre, Regent Circus, was hoping the plans will go through.

Jean Saunders helped set up the action group, Save Coate, which has so far collected 16,000 signatures against the development.

She said: "It's absolutely essential that we win the arguments against allocated plans at Coate.

"The environmental considerations are just so huge that it is not possible to accommodate the scale and type of proposal on the cards."

And former Swindon MP Julia Drown believes the university would be better placed on brownfield sites in the town centre rather than on the green site at Coate.

She said: "The inquiry here is a chance for the people of Swindon to make their views heard on Coate.

"It's not only about the protection of Coate but also because of the need to develop the town centre that I am here to say that the current proposals are deeply flawed."

The public inquiry will continue today with those against the site expected to raise environmental issues.

Gareth Bethell