Work to begin on unused and unfinished road

Work is to begin on an unused and incomplete road in Swindon.

The Southern Connector Road runs from just north of the Commonhead roundabout to South Marston village.

But in September 2023, Buckingham Group went into administration as the road was due to be completed, and before it was handed over to the council.

The administrators wanted the council to pay for construction costs, which it was reluctant to do as it was not complete, but now says it will "press ahead with the remedial repairs" in order to get it open.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cabinet member for the environment and transport Chris Watts said: "Administration is an extremely time-consuming process that has put us in the frankly unacceptable position where we have been unable to get this new road open.

"The New Eastern Villages is one of the borough's key strategic housing sites and we need to support the developers so they can begin to build the much-needed homes. This is being frustrated by the administration process."

The road is supposed to be used by construction traffic for the New Eastern Villages initially and then by residents, who are currently having to use residential roads Merlin Way and Wanborough Road instead.

Mr Watts added: "We also have a duty to local residents to get this road opened for construction traffic.

"Enough is enough. I have instructed officers to press ahead with the remedial repairs we need to make in order to safely open the road for construction traffic only in the medium term."

Mr Watts was unwilling to say how much the repairs might cost, but admitted: "It won't be cheap."

He said there were issues with the road and in particular the bridge over some of the streams which cross the low-lying land, and parts of the paths are starting to crumble.

Mr Watts said: "There's very little that's right with it, but we can't wait any longer, so we're going to fix it, and then try and get the money back."

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