PUTTING Trowbridge on the map and transforming Market Place in Westbury are top of the agenda for the district council's new regeneration officer.

Adam Nardell joined West Wiltshire District Council from Romford, Essex, where he managed the regeneration of the town, and he is hoping the next few years will see big changes for the five west Wiltshire towns.

His role is to encourage economic development and regeneration of the towns, improve the public realm and liaise with developers and local companies. One of his major priorities is to see the Transforming Trowbridge plans begin to take effect.

"I would like to position Trowbridge where it deserves to be as the county town and not be eclipsed by the Swindons and Salisburys of this world," he said.

He is writing a timetable for when each development should take place.

"The plan is to begin with the Waterside leisure development, which will provide new buildings for the library, a bowling alley, cinema and shops. The district council is due to approve the development partners later this month," he said.

"The waterside development should stimulate a lot of interest in Trowbridge. The very act of talking to developers will help the town because they all talk to each other. What we need to be attracting is big national retailers.

"The town was quite pleased when Monsoon chose to come to Trowbridge as it's a very picky company and it shows bigger companies are beginning to have confidence in us."

In Westbury, Mr Nardell's major concern is improving Market Place.

"It is an attractive setting for historical buildings and we can better connect it up with the town centre for pedestrians," he said. "At the moment it is a parking free for all and we need to sort this out which we can with parking decriminalisation."

Plans for other towns include developing pedestrian access in Warminster town centre, working with Bradford on Avon Town Council on their plans for a footbridge to the Kingston Mill site.

In Melksham Mr Nardell is looking at ways of moving away the single street shopping centre and improving the area in front of the Town Hall.