THERE is a lot to be said for MP Michael Wills' impassioned plea that Swindon town centre should be flattened to make way for a big, bold scheme that would draw people to the centre like a magnet.

Cities like Birmingham and Newcastle for years had a bad reputation for rundown and decaying shopping areas with unattractive 1960s architecture.

But go to these cities now and the planners have taken the radical option and created exciting plazas and streets with attractions for everyone from the elderly to families and teenagers.

Mr Wills says there is no point in fiddling around the edges and the town centre area in Swindon could be treated like a greenfield site as a blank canvas. Swindon has to think big to compete with its neighbouring towns and cities like Oxford, Reading and Bath. And people travel as far away as Cardiff to shop in an attractive setting which delivers all the goods they desire.

Back in the 1960s, planners around the country ripped out the heart of many commercial centres and put up concrete monstrosities but this decaying ugliness is now not acceptable and is being bulldozed away by forward thinking councils.

The rejuvenation of Swindon should be an exciting project that will be a legacy for generations to come a place to be proud of.