The Swindon heritage action zone

The HAZ branding project seeks to create a distinctive and easily recognisable brand inspired by Swindon’s railway history. It will be used to promote the Railway Village and Swindon town centre as a destination and place of interest.

A positive brand will also help to increase civic pride and combat negative perceptions of Swindon by replacing them with a more positive, interesting and memorable story based on Swindon’s distinctive and nationally significant railway heritage. It will draw attention to the extent and range of Swindon’s heritage assets within the Railway Village and Works area and help sell regeneration projects as new attractions.

This project will need the views and involvement of local people and organisations both at the initial information gathering stages and again at the implementation, broadcasting stage.  A steering group to oversee this project has been set up which includes key stakeholders from the area as well as the Council, Historic England and Mechanics’ Institution Trust (MIT). They are working on a survey to benchmark people’s perceptions of the HAZ and its projects and preparing a brief to commission a specialist branding agency to create the brand and engage with local residents, businesses and community groups.

We are interested in hearing your views about the Heritage Action Zone and its projects. The information you give us will be used to measure how peoples’ perceptions change as the HAZ progresses and to assess the effectiveness of the brand.

Tell us what you think by completing our short survey.