A sikh temple and community centre could soon see the light of day after more than 10 years of planning and fundraising.

A new application has been submitted to Swindon Borough Council for the temple and councillors will discuss it at a meeting on Monday at 7pm.

Officers are recommending that the plan to build the temple in Kembrey Street in Gorse Hill is given the go ahead.

The building of a new temple was first discussed in 1988, but the Sikh community had problems finding a suitable site.

In 1993, Swindon Council gave Sikhs the chance to buy the former leisure gardens to the north of Kembrey Street, and three years later permission was granted for a £1.5 million two storey temple and centre.

But after four failed bids for National Lottery money, project leaders were forced to revise their plans.

After raising £1million, mainly from donations and a bank loan, the community was given permission for a simpler, one-storey temple in April 1999.

It was thought that work would start on the temple straight away, but now the Sikh community have submitted another revised plan to the council.

This new plan, which is more detailed than the ones before, now accommodates access from Cirencester Way, with a barrier to prevent through traffic to Kembrey Street and Cricklade Road and noise restrictions.

The council's director of environmental services Peter Ellershaw said: "The site represents the area of the former leisure gardens to the north of Kembrey Street.

"It is identified on the local plan as a site suitable for the religious needs of ethnic minority communities."

The fully functioning community centre will have more than 70 car parking spaces.

The temple will serve as a centre for the Sikh community in Swindon for religious and social purposes, including language classes and pensioner groups. At the moment the only religious centre for Sikhs in Swindon is a temple in Old Town.

That is not big enough for the purposes of the 300 families who regularly use it, as it only has two car parking spaces.