By the time you read this, work should be underway to revamp Kings Square. I know it’s difficult to believe after so many false starts, but it is true. When it comes to bad luck, plans for Kings Square have had more than their fair share.

One developer went bust, another walked away and a third just didn’t deliver. The Urban Regeneration Company (remember them?) had their own plans drawn up, but then funding got withdrawn and they were wound up.

The most recent scheme by developers Stanhope involved building on a lot of the Square. I didn’t think that was right for the city and neither did most people I spoke to, so we parted company with them amicably and drew up our own plans.

A space for events, performances and activities

Kings Square will stay as an open space for events, performances and activities. New high quality paving, landscaping and lighting will be installed and, yes, the fountains will be making a comeback – not as they were, but as a ground level water feature which can be programmed and switched off when the space is needed for other uses.

We’ve set aside a budget of £5 million, which will be enough to do a proper job on it, and the planning application is working its way through the system. While it does so, we can get on with moving, disconnecting and demolishing the elements that don’t need consent before the major work starts in the New Year. All being well, it should be finished by Christmas 2020.

The last time Kings Square was refurbished it won awards for the design. But sadly it didn’t stand the test of time. Remember the disused fountains, the bearpit toilets and the dilapidated Golden Egg building? All of those have gone, but I’m the first to admit the current Kings Square provides a fairly bleak outlook.

But it could be great. The Retro Festival, including the performance by The Real Thing, offers a glimpse of what it could be if used properly.

Gloucester has had lots of regeneration over the last 15 years, but people won’t feel we’re anywhere near finishing the job until Kings Square is sorted. Well, it’s started now. I hope the finished article will have been worth waiting for.