Start on regenerating site
WORK on regenerating the Harbourside Strategic Employment Site in Port Talbot’s former docks area is to begin on March 22.
Improvement work at the site will be the catalyst for Neath Port Talbot Council’s redevelopment of the town’s former docklands into a thriving waterfront business and industrial centre attracting further private investment to help drive employment growth.
Once the improvement work is completed by Port Talbotbased contractors Andrew Scott Ltd, the site will provide land for industrial and office users maximising the advantage of the site’s closeness to the town centre and to excellent transport links.
The project includes remediation of former brownfield land, construction of access roads, the upgrading of existing highway to an adoptable standard and flood mitigation measures.
Localised traffic diversions will be in place on Harbour Way next to the site for about 14 weeks while a new culvert is built across the highway.
The improvement scheme, expected to take around 10 months, has secured £2.7m worth of funding from the
European Regional Development Fund via the Welsh Government and there will be benefits for property developers and both new and existing businesses at the Harbourside Strategic Employment site and its surrounding areas.
Project outputs include: ■ 3 hectares land developed ■ 240m length of highway created ■ 205m length improved ■ 240m length of active travel route created ■ 2.5 hectares – areas of development land with improved access ■ 0.2 hectares of additional car parking space created of highway
The work will help facilitate the delivery of Neath Port Talbot Council’s Supporting Innovation and Low Carbon Growth Swansea Bay City Deal project, once funding approval has been secured.
The overall Supporting Innovation and Low Carbon Growth programme is estimated to be worth £6.2m a year to the local economy once all projects are operational. More than 1,300 jobs will be created or safeguarded, with at least 30% of these to be new.
Work has already started on part of the Supporting Innovation and Low Carbon Growth project, the self powering technology centre building currently under construction at the Baglan Bay Energy Park.
The flagship, green facility will provide flexible office space for start-up companies and growing local businesses with a focus on the Research and Development and Innovation sectors.
Other Neath Port Talbot City Deal projects include multimillion pound plans to support the steel industry and reduce its carbon footprint, the introduction of an electric vehicle charging network and proposals to better predict and improve air quality.
Cllr Annette Wingrave, Neath Port Talbot Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and
Port Talbot docks.
Sustainable Development, said: “This improvement project will enable the site for future development with the jobs and investment which come with that. It will also provide additional car parking to support the development of the sites in the former docks area.”
The investment in the new development at Harbourside follows substantial EU funding in the regeneration of Port Talbot including £54m for the Harbour Way M4 link road, £7.5m in TWI’S engineering research centre and £2.5m in the town’s new Integrated Transport Hub.
Cllr Wingrave added: “This important project will contribute to the continued development of Harbourside, the Port Talbot Waterfront Enterprise Zone and the wider Swansea Bay City Region and its various projects, strengthening its viability as a destination to live and work, as well as meeting existing demand for development land in the area.”
PLACE names in Swansea with links to the slave trade or exploitation are to be accompanied by panels or digital bar codes to give a fuller historical context.
And more lesser-known figures from Swansea’s past will be recognised in the future – a shift away from the traditional commemoration of industrialists and landowners.
The measures were recommended in a cabinet report, which cabinet enthusiastically approved at a meeting yesterday.
In addition, future decisions relating to street names will be delegated to senior council officers in consultation with cabinet members, but no changes would take place without scrutiny and wider consultation.
The acknowledgement of lesser-known characters has been evident for a while through Swansea Council’s blue plaques – the latest of which will be unveiled on March 25 in honour of Jessie Donaldson.
She campaigned for the abolition of slavery in the 19th Century, travelling to Ohio to operate a safe house which offered shelter to slaves fleeing from the plantations of the south to the relative safety of the north.
There could be consideration of a memorial to the 230 people killed during the Three Nights’ Blitz, and also to those who have died during the Aids epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic.
A cross-party working group has been looking into these issues after Swansea councillors passed a motion last summer calling for names or public signs which had confirmed links to slavery or exploitation to be removed where possible.
The motion, which followed widespread Black Lives Matter protests, also called for a deeper review of place names and more information about Swansea’s links to the slave trade and exploitation.
Council leader Rob Stewart said he was very supportive of the working
group’s recommendations, adding that equality was still something “we’re not there on”.
He said: “Some groups face intolerance and hatred on a daily basis.”
The Labour leader said he was keen that individuals “banned on Youtube” did not misrepresent what was being discussed.
This wasn’t, he said, about deleting certain figures from history. It was, he said, about telling the full story and the part that Swansea played in the world.
Cllr Robert Francisdavies, cabinet member for investment, regeneration and tourism, said: “It’s not rewriting the past, but learning from the mistakes of the past.”
He added that modern day slavery was a live issue which needed to end.
Cllr Louise Gibbard, who headed the working review, said new role models were needed to inspire the next generation. It was an ongoing conversation, she said, “about what Swansea is and who Swansea people are”.
Cllr Elliott King, cabinet member for children services, said he was pleased to see mention of a potential Aids memorial – a disease he said had directly and indirectly caused 33
million deaths worldwide.
Cllr Jennifer Raynor, who has the education portfolio, said it was a very timely report.
“For too long individuals and groups have almost been hidden from view,” she said. “This is about recognising the real role many people have played in our history.”
A new walkway in the city centre Copr Bay development is being named after champion sprinter Cyril Cupid, who died in 1965.
His father was a West Indian zinc worker; his mother a Welsh woman.
The cabinet report said Swansea named many of its new streets after prominent local industrialists, members of the local gentry, and Welsh and British military heroes.
“Coincidentally, some of these figures had direct or indirect involvement with the British slave trade, owned slave plantations or were connected with slave-owning families,” it said.
“The history of Swansea includes individuals of conscience who have fought for improved social justice, whether that be the abolition of slavery, women’s voting rights, greater gender equality or other social and educational reforms.”