Theatre suggestion for cinema complex rejected

Regent Circus was completed in 2015 but is now mostly empty

A suggestion to move a town's theatre to a near-deserted retail complex has been rejected.

The Conservatives proposed relocating Wyvern Theatre - which Swindon Borough Council said had "concrete cancer and other issues" - to the Regent Circus development.

Conservative group leader said the move would bring "vibrancy" to the area and give a reason for restaurants to reopen there.

But Labour council leader Jim Robbins rejected the idea and said the retail complex was "not in the right place" for the theatre.

The Cineworld which was previously based in the Regent Circus complex shut in 2024.

Mr Sumner said moving the Wyvern Theatre into the unit "would be a great opportunity".

"It would give you vibrancy in terms of getting the restaurants and things back into business," he added.

Of eight food outlets at Regent Circus, only Nando's remains.

But the council's leader Mr Robbins said the Labour administration preferred the option of building a space for the theatre at the site of the town's bus station.

"To have the entertainment venue right in the heart of the town centre, and create some new public space around it, feels like the much better option to us.

"It's land we own, it's land we have control of," he added.

The largest of the units at Regent Circus – and most visibly empty from the rest of the town centre – is the former Morrisons supermarket, which closed in 2019.

The supermarket chain remains contractually tied to the site.

Regent Circus previously went up for sale in 2020 and was believed to have been bought by UK Commercial Property REIT. That company has since been bought out by Tritax Big Box.