Prince's StreetSWINDON Council must take the lead in bringing the University of Bath to the town centre, a new report will claim.

The Swindon Civic Trust report says the town centre can comfortably accommodate a university campus and the council must work to make the land available and save Coate from the development.

But the university insists it must be at Coate.

Alan Hayward, principal author of the trust's report, said: "It is well known that the University of Bath would like to build a campus at Coate and that the university has said it could not be accommodated in the town centre.

"However the report uses the university's own figures to show that this is not so.

"The university needs a floor area of 119,000 sq m and we have shown that up to 550,000 sq m could be available, depending on the density of development and the height of buildings.

"Furthermore, 75 per cent of the core campus sites in question are currently owned by Swindon Council, so accommodating the university is largely a question of the council having the vision and will to make the land available for this purpose."

The report, to be published on Wednesday, identifies a swathe of land running from Regent Circus, along Princes Street, through Whale Bridge and Carfax to North Star for a campus including student housing.

Buildings such as Swindon College at Regent Circus and the BT building at North Star could be reused or replaced, the report will say. Council leader Coun Mike Bawden said they would look at the report but that it was up to the university to decide where to try to build its campus.

"We will be particularly interested in how the civic trust thinks the financial aspects of locating the university in the town centre could be resolved as the value of the land that the council owns is a key factor in our plans to regenerate the town centre and to invest in the services local people want," he added.

A University of Bath in Swindon spokeswoman said the campus must be at Coate to allow links to the hospital.

"There is more land in the Coate area to develop the campus than there is in the town centre, and the cost of buying plots of town centre land would be prohibitive for the university," she said.

"We understand that the civic trust is suggesting that land belonging to Swindon Council in the town centre should be made available to the university at no cost, but we have no reason to believe that will be the case."

The New Swindon Company, which is responsible for the regeneration of the town centre, said the university had to be central to any debate.

"We look forward to reviewing the civic trust's report, particularly in terms of commercial viability, funding sources and how the necessary land will be secured given the mix of ownerships," said Rosemary Wells, director of business development.

Swindon Civic Trust has accepted an invitation from the University of Bath's vice

chancellor to discuss the report's proposals.

The report will be available on the trust's website at www.swindoncivictrust.org.uk

Isabel Field