AFTER a year of sweat and toil, building work at the Holiday Inn in Fleet Square has ended and the hotel has opened its doors.

Midas Construction, the company who designed and managed the building work, has put the finishing touches to the eight-storey building.

The total cost of the contract came to more than £6 million and involved 150 builders working on site every day for more than a year.

The 123-bedroom hotel is expected to provide accommodation for the growing numbers of business people and visitors coming to the town centre.

Ian Fairbairn, director of the construction project, said: "This has been an interesting and prestigious project and one which further strengthens our expertise and experience in the leisure industry sector."

First Inn Hotels owns the hotel, which is part of the Holiday Inn's Express chain.

This is the second Express Holiday Inn hotel in Swindon.

The first was opened in 2001 in Blagrove, near to junction 16 of the M4. There are now 70 Express locations across the UK.

The hotel in Fleet Square offers a meeting centre, evening dining facilities, direct dial phones with modem points and power showers in all rooms.

Room rates start from £65 and at weekends they offer a special rate of £60 for a family room for four.

Roisin Sturla, an assistant at the Swindon Information Centre, said: "This is just the sort of thing the town centre needs.

"As the town centre undergoes redevelopment, I imagine this hotel will see a definite increase in demand, even though at the moment things are quite quiet."

The only other hotel of a similar size in the town centre is the Thistle Hotel in Fleming Way, which has 94 rooms.

Emma-Kate Lidbury