A small plot of land at the rear of Wootton Bassett Road in Swindon went to auction between October 6 and October 8, with bidding opening at just £1. The freehold parcel, tucked behind a residential row with easy reach of the M4's junction 16 and Swindon railway station, was listed on Rightmove as having "great potential for development".

The seller had commissioned illustrative CGIs showing the land kitted out with electric vehicle chargers or storage containers, though the listing stressed these were indicative only and represented no actual planning permission. Prospective buyers were advised to seek planning guidance before doing anything with the land, given its proximity to people's houses, gardens and, presumably, their patience.

It is understood that "great potential" is now doing an enormous amount of work for a strip of land roughly the size of a large kitchen. Estate agents in the area have reportedly begun applying the same phrase to traffic islands, the gap behind the Brunel Centre bins, and one particularly hopeful pothole on Fleming Way.

A council spokesperson said planning guidance remained available to anyone wishing to convert the lane into something more ambitious than a lane, adding that EV chargers, storage containers and "great potential" were three entirely separate things that did not automatically follow one another.

"I'm not one to gossip," said Brenda Pask, 72, of Old Town, who has lived there since before it was old, "but I hear that lane's had more offers this week than our Sandra's had on her static caravan, and that's been on the market since Ron was alive. In my day a back lane's great potential was for hanging washing out and keeping the coal in. Nobody needed a computer picture of it with a charging point stuck on, you just used your imagination, and your imagination didn't cost a penny, which is more than I can say for that one."

Gary Tench, Area Manager at Tench Paper Solutions in Westlea, said the auction had given him a new way of talking about his department's storage cupboard. "Great potential, subject to planning, that's basically our stationery room," he said. "I've told Julie we should put it on Rightmove, see what it fetches. Could be a wellness pod, could be a server room, could just stay a cupboard with a broken strip light. That's the beauty of potential, it never actually has to happen."

By Thursday evening the bidding had, it is understood, moved some distance beyond £1, proving that in Swindon almost anything can be described as having great potential, provided nobody asks exactly when that potential is arriving.

The lane itself, still technically just a lane, declined to comment.