Councillor says town's tower block 'needs saving'

An "iconic" building in a town centre has been "forgotten about", a councillor has claimed.

The David Murray John (DMJ) tower in Swindon is currently empty after essential repairs were ordered to the exterior in 2023.

Councillor Daniel Adams said: "At some point a decision has to be made purely on safety grounds on what needs to be done, and I want that decision to be to invest in it rather than demolish it."

Swindon Borough Council leader Jim Robbins said a "master plan" was being put together which he hoped would "bring it back into use".

The DMJ building, which has 20 floors, once had 72 flats across its top floors and commercial units on the ground level.

The tower is 272ft (82m) tall and opened in 1976 at a cost of £2m.

The DMJ building is connected with the Brunel shopping centre.

Adams said: "My understanding is that the structure of the building is sound but the façade has come to the end of life.

He added: "It [the tower] looks almost like a spaceship has landed in the centre of town. There's nothing else like it that I'm aware of and, for those reasons alone, it's worthy of saving."

Robbins said the council was in discussions with the owner of the Brunel shopping centre and more details on the master plan would be revealed later in the year.

He said he wanted to get the tower back into a position "where it could be really well used".

He added: "These things take a bit of time, you just have to be patient with it."

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