Work to start on Swindon's Regent Circus leisure complex

The target date for the centre opening is 2014

Work is due to start later on the demolition of buildings formerly used by Swindon College.

Once cleared, the Regent Circus site will be used for a six-screen cinema, a supermarket and eight restaurants.

On Wednesday evening an adjoining car park will be closed and demolition equipment moved in.

A spokesman for Ashfield Land, which acquired the site in 2006, said it hoped the work would be a catalyst to help regenerate the area.

"We bought the site outright which enabled the college to relocate to its new campus at New Star.

"The demolition contractors are taking control of the site and preparing it but we cannot blow it up because it is in a residential area so it has to be taken down bit by bit.

"The demolition will be complete by the end of the summer and the new build will start in the early autumn and we are looking at an opening date of 2014," he added.