IF Swindon's business community is pledging to put £500,000 cash towards a scheme to restore Lydiard Park, there must be a serious conviction that the project would reap enormous benefits for the town.

For that sort of money to be voluntarily thrown into the ring, and for the firm Innogy to put up £70,000 on a feasibility study, one would assume the businesses locally have done their sums.

They also say Swindon is a cultural desert and Lydiard Park would be the jewel in the crown of a vision to develop cultural and leisure facilities and put Swindon on the map for visitors too.

But the council is teetering on the brink of a decision to pull the plug on the £5.5 million scheme and an application for lottery cash torn between investing in this restoration of the 18th century house and gardens or keeping as much cash as possible for funds such as education and social services.

There is never enough money to meet all the targets in these vital areas.

But the fact that business is committed to investing so heavily and English Heritage and the Countryside Commission support the scheme must mean the project has a good chance of harvesting rich pickings by revitalising Swindon's fortunes.