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  1. MORRISTON: Man jailed after locking his ex inside her own home and smashing her phone

    A Morriston man who locked his former partner inside her own home after taking her phone and keys has been jailed for three years.

    She was rescued only when she managed to open a window and shout for help, and a neighbour called the police, South Wales Police said.

    Daniel Green, 35, of Martin Street, was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court after admitting false imprisonment, two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assaulting an emergency worker.

    Morriston woman locked in for hours after Green took her phone

    The court heard the pair had been together for around two years, and an order was in place banning them from seeing each other. In July, Green asked if he could come and stay at her home.

    On 5 July he went through her phone, found a message from another man on social media and accused her of cheating. The court heard he hit her in the face with an electric fan and punched her on the nose, making it bleed.

    Three days later, drunk and still convinced she was being unfaithful, he screamed at her and would not let her leave in the early hours.

    She climbed out of a downstairs window, but he caught her by the arm and pulled her back inside, the court heard.

    Police say he punched her in the face several times, took her phone and smashed it, then took her keys.

    She was locked in for between four and six hours before a neighbour saw her at the window and phoned the police. When officers arrived, she was at an upstairs window telling them she could not get out.

    Female officer headbutted during Green’s arrest

    Green refused to walk to the police car and asked for alcohol instead, the court heard. When he did move, he headbutted a female officer and kicked out at her.

    Victim now “struggles to leave the house”

    In a statement read to the court, the woman said she has nightmares every day and suffers extreme anxiety attacks when she goes out. “I never wanted any of this to happen, all I wanted from Daniel was his love,” she said.

    The court heard Green had 10 previous offences, including convictions in a domestic setting, although he had last been before the courts in 2015.

    His barrister said he was alcohol dependent at the time, has mental health problems and was sorry for what he had done.

    Judge Catherine Richards jailed him for three years, with false imprisonment as the lead offence.

    Police: Green “clearly poses great danger to women”

    Sergeant Penny Romanello said Green was “a violent offender who clearly poses great danger to women”.

    She said: “Like many domestic abusers, he was frequently paranoid about the victim being unfaithful. But he was the true threat to their relationship due to his violence.”

    She said Green had left the woman “frightened and a shadow of her former self”, and that the psychological effects of his abuse would be long-lasting.

    Drink was no excuse, she added: “This was repeated domestic abuse which nobody should have to endure. His behaviour was completely out of control, and for that reason, prison is the only suitable place for him.”

    If you are experiencing domestic abuse, the Live Fear Free helpline is open 24 hours a day on 0808 80 10 800.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    CARMARTHEN: Man who spent the day hunting his ex-partner with a knife jailed for 24 years
    Another domestic attack case sentenced at Swansea Crown Court.

    Domestic abuse
    All our coverage of domestic abuse cases and support.

    More from South Wales Police
    The latest from the force across Swansea and Neath Port Talbot.

    Morriston news from Swansea Bay News
    The latest from the town.

    #domesticAbuse #Morriston #SouthWalesPolice #Swansea #SwanseaCrownCourt
  2. SWANSEA: British judo champion Zac, 14, wanted to quit when his mum was diagnosed with cancer

    When Zac Thomas found out his mum had breast cancer, the Swansea teenager wanted to give up and stay at home with her.

    The news “shocked me a bit”, the 14-year-old said. “I wanted to quit and stay home with my mum, but I thought that I just had to push through it.”

    He didn’t quit. In the past 10 months he has become British Judo champion and British School Judo champion, the awards say.

    On Friday night he won the Young Sporting Hero award for over-13s at the Child of Wales Awards.

    The ceremony at Swansea Building Society Arena marked the awards’ fifth anniversary, with 700 guests.

    Zac on the podium at a British Judo event (Image: Child of Wales Awards)

    The only Welsh child picked for the British squad in Japan

    Only one Welsh child was picked to go to Japan with the British squad, and it was Zac. He is also a three-time Welsh jujitsu champion and a member of the Welsh Jujitsu Squad.

    His family say he has been invited to South Africa and has trained in other countries. He “went to Malta for the Commonwealth Games” and came home with a bronze, they said.

    At one competition he won three gold medals in three different weight categories, they added.

    Zac lives with autism and the attention deficit conditions ADHD and ADD, the awards say. He also passes on what he knows about judo to other young people.

    Zac at a Welsh Judo Association event (Image: Child of Wales Awards)

    Judo started when he watched his brother

    Football came first, when he was four or five, and he played for Cardiff City, he said. Then came rugby, which he loved, but he wanted another sport.

    Judo came from watching his brother. “I watched my brother do it for like a month. Then I really wanted to start doing it,” he said.

    His coach told his dad he was ready. After his first training session, Zac said, he “loved it”.

    Football and rugby have not gone anywhere. He helped Penlan Football Club win the league, cup and Champions Cup, and was part of Dunvant Rugby’s Ospreys Cup win.

    Zac playing rugby (Image: Child of Wales Awards)

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    Christmas morning, serving dinner to people who are homeless

    Every Christmas morning he gives up to six hours to serve a three-course meal to people experiencing homelessness, the awards say.

    He and his brother have done it for “a good few years now”, his family said, going down to “cook, and give out the food”.

    “I can stick up for myself now”

    Everybody loves him, his family said, “but he is the lovable rogue in school, out of school, in judo”.

    They were “gobsmacked” by the award. “He deserves this, especially all that he’s been through,” they said.

    Zac Thomas with his Young Sporting Hero award at the Child of Wales Awards (Image: Child of Wales Awards)

    Zac has plans of his own. When he finishes school, he said, he might start his own company, called Zac Thomas Club.

    The reason is what judo has given him. “I can stick up for myself now, which I’m very happy,” he said.

    He wants to pass that on to others, “so they can feel the way how I feel now”.

    BBC Morning Live presenter Gethin Jones hosted the awards for a fifth year. The night raised money for Wales Air Ambulance and the mental health charity Big Moose.

    Neath dad John Jenkins, who carried his daughter Leah to the top of Pen y Fan, also won on the night.

    So did Pontardawe’s Cian Evans, 11, who plans to walk up it 10 times in 24 hours.

    Llandovery firefighter Cathryn Moore, 19, was named Young Leader.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    PONTARDAWE: Crash survivor Cian, 11, plans to walk up Pen y Fan 10 times in 24 hours
    Young Fundraiser at this year’s Child of Wales Awards.

    LLANDOVERY: Firefighter Cathryn, 19, got thank-you cards from her swimming pupils after the wildfires
    Cathryn Moore, Young Leader winner.

    NEATH: Dad ran 27 miles to Pen y Fan, carried his daughter to the top, then ran home
    John Jenkins, Above & Beyond winner.

    More on the Child of Wales Awards
    Every story from the awards for Wales’ young people.

    #Autism #CardiffCityFC #ChildOfWalesAwards #CommonwealthGames #DunvantRFC #GethinJones #homelessness #homepage #JuJitsu #Judo #Swansea #SwanseaArena #WalesAirAmbulance
  3. SA1: Marketing agency that started as a one-woman business moves into the J-Shed after Workplace of the Year win

    A Swansea digital marketing agency that began as a one-person business in 2018 has signed for Unit 6 at the J-Shed in SA1, days after being named Workplace of the Year at the South Wales Business Awards.

    AD Marketing runs search engine optimisation and paid search campaigns for clients across Wales and the UK. Founder Alix Charles set it up and ran it alone before the team grew.

    The firm says it is taking on staff and new clients and needed more room.

    Charles, its managing director, said: “To win Workplace of the Year and then sign for our new office within days of each other made September a pretty special month for us.”

    From grain warehouse to agency office

    The J-Shed was built in 1895 as a grain warehouse beside the Prince of Wales Dock and is Grade II listed, the last survivor of the row of dockside sheds. It now holds offices, businesses and leisure units.

    The lease was handled by RJ Chartered Surveyors, whose associate director James Smale-Davies is pictured with Charles at the new unit.

    Charles said the firm had wanted “somewhere that reflected where AD Marketing is heading”. She added: “J-Shed has so much history and character, but it also sits in an area full of businesses that are growing, innovating and investing in Swansea.”

    “Winning the award and securing J-Shed within the same week felt like two very clear signs that we are moving in the right direction,” she said.

    ‘If you invest in good people, they grow with the business’

    The company puts the award down to how it treats its staff, promoting from within and involving the team in decisions about where the firm goes next.

    “We have always believed that if you invest in good people, give them opportunities and listen to them, they will grow with the business,” Charles said.

    “What we have created here hasn’t come from copying somebody else’s idea of what a good workplace should look like. It has developed around our team, what motivates them and what helps them do their best work.”

    The agency made Faith in Families its charity of the year in 2025, setting out to raise £10,000 by offering its SEO and paid search training courses free in return for donations to the charity.

    The firm has not put a figure on the size of the team or the number of new roles.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    Local Swansea business sets £10k fundraising goal to support families across Wales
    AD Marketing’s 2025 charity of the year partnership with Faith in Families.

    SA1
    Every story from the waterfront.

    Business
    Openings, moves, jobs and deals across Swansea Bay.

    Swansea
    The latest from across the city and county.

    #ADMarketing #JShed #RJCharteredSurveyors #SA1 #SouthWalesBusinessAwards #Swansea
  4. MICHAEL DOUGLAS: ‘I won her back? It was a mutual’: Hollywood star on his 2013 split from Swansea’s Catherine Zeta-Jones

    Michael Douglas has pushed back at the idea that he had to win Catherine Zeta-Jones back after the couple’s 2013 separation, insisting the time apart was “a mutual” decision.

    The 82-year-old was asked by The Sunday Times, in an interview to promote his memoir One Helluva Ride reported by the Daily Mail, how he “won back” the Swansea-born star after they split 13 years into their marriage.

    “What, I won her back? It was a mutual,” he replied. “You know, we had our problems but I love her dearly and, 25 years, you know.”

    “I mean, I don’t know about your marital status, but marriage is a lot of work, you know. And so, you know, we’re good. We’re in good shape. It’s all I can say.”

    In the book, which goes on sale in the UK today, he writes of the separation: “I never gave up hope that we would reconcile.”

    Michael Douglas with One Helluva Ride, which is published in the UK today (Image: Michael Douglas / Instagram)

    “She was magic”: the excerpt he posted for her birthday

    The couple share a birthday, 25 September, 25 years apart. Douglas marked this year’s with an excerpt from the memoir about seeing Zeta-Jones on screen before they met.

    “I had never fallen in love on a movie screen before. Until I saw Catherine. She was magic, in a way that went beyond beauty,” he wrote. “And I was certain, as much as I had ever been about anything, that she was the one.”

    “It’s the kind of moment that only comes around once in your life, if you’re lucky. The one time that you know, without any doubt in your mind, that you’re meant to be with someone. Happy Birthday Catherine! I love you always and forever!”

    She replied: “Thank you darling. Thank you. Happy Birthday to you too my love.”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/DdtGQCxpeFY/

    A “bump in the road” after two years of illness

    The couple met at the Deauville Film Festival in 1998 and married at New York’s Plaza Hotel in November 2000. In 2013 they said they were “taking some time apart to evaluate and work on their marriage”.

    It followed a bruising few years. Douglas was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, and Zeta-Jones spoke publicly in 2011 about being treated for bipolar II disorder, returning to a clinic for further treatment in 2013.

    The same year Douglas told The Guardian his cancer had been caused by HPV, a virus passed on through oral sex, remarks he later said he regretted for the embarrassment they caused his wife.

    “We had a little bump in the road,” he told Event magazine in 2015. “The problem in this business is that everything is so public. I love Catherine as much, more than I ever have. And hopefully the feeling’s mutual.”

    “We worked things out. If both people want to work something out and make it better, you can do it. You can’t do it if it’s just one person.”

    Zeta-Jones: “Do that job, that’s amazing”

    Zeta-Jones, 57, gave her own account of what has kept the marriage going when she spoke to The Sunday Times last month, in the interview in which she called the “nepo baby” label attached to their children Dylan, 26, and Carys, 23, “horrific”.

    The secret, she said, was that she kept working rather than staying at home. “Michael is, like, ‘Do that job, that’s amazing.’ Then he’s able to fly in and see me. Much better than waking up, going, ‘What do you want for breakfast, honey?’ I don’t think our marriage would ever have lasted if it was like that.”

    The couple marked 25 years of marriage last November, when she posted “I love you today as I did then” and he wrote, to “my darling Catherine”: “Who knew?” Douglas has been a regular visitor to Wales with his wife, and was at the Brangwyn Hall in 2019 when she was given the Freedom of the City.

    Last month she told Heart Breakfast she had turned down Ryan Reynolds “many times” over Welcome to Wrexham because “Swansea City is my team”.

    Douglas stepped back from acting in 2022 after nearly 60 years, and was last seen as Benjamin Franklin in Apple TV+’s Franklin. His wife has kept doing the job, as Morticia in Netflix’s Wednesday and now as Jackie Price in Kill Jackie, the Prime Video thriller partly filmed in Swansea in which she uses her Welsh accent on screen for the first time.

    “Jackie is just getting started,” she posted from the set last month.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/DdeV6GKse2F/

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    Swansea’s Catherine Zeta-Jones celebrates 25 years of marriage to Michael Douglas – “I love you today as I did then.”

    SWANSEA: Catherine Zeta-Jones blasts ‘horrific’ nepo baby label as children follow famous parents – Dylan, Carys and the Sunday Times interview.

    CATHERINE ZETA-JONES: ‘I can’t go to Wrexham’: Swansea’s Hollywood star turned down Ryan Reynolds ‘many times’ – “Swansea City is my team.”

    More Catherine Zeta-Jones coverage

    #CarysZetaDouglas #CatherineZetaJones #celebrity #DylanDouglas #KillJackie #MichaelDouglas #Swansea
  5. SWANSEA: Five Strictly legends are bringing Las Vegas to the arena this Friday

    Five former Strictly Come Dancing professionals are bringing a Las Vegas dance show to Swansea this Friday.

    Brendan Cole, James Jordan, Pasha Kovalev, Vincent Simone and Ian Waite play Swansea Building Society Arena on 9 October with Vegas: After Hours.

    Between them they have two Glitterballs: Cole won the very first series in 2004 with Natasha Kaplinsky, and Kovalev lifted the trophy in 2014.

    They arrive with Strictly back on BBC One, and this year’s series brought a Swansea name to the ballroom.

    Melanie Walters, Gwen in Gavin & Stacey, was paired with Aljaž Škorjanec at the launch.

    From Celine Dion to Sinatra, with James Bond themes thrown in

    The show runs for two and a half hours, Kovalev said, set to the music of stars who have played Las Vegas, Celine Dion and Elton John to Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.

    Cole will dance the rumba and the paso doble, and he hinted at the soundtrack: “Let’s just say that a few epic James Bond film themes might be involved.”

    He went further than that. “This tour promises to be the raunchiest yet,” he said.

    Waite has a solo spot to the music of Sammy Davis Jr, dancing “a quickstep and a slow dramatic waltz”. “No jiving for me!” he said.

    For Simone, it is the Argentine tango, which he called his speciality.

    The Vegas: After Hours tour poster, with Swansea Arena on 9 October (Image: Senbla)

    “They wish we were still on Strictly”: why the fans keep coming back

    This is their third tour in three years, after Legends of The Dance Floor in 2024 and The Return of The Legends in 2025.

    Jordan, who finished runner-up with Denise Van Outen in 2012, puts it down to nostalgia.

    Fans tell them so all the time, he said: “I can’t count the number of times people say to me, and the others, that they wish we were still on Strictly.”

    That, he believes, is “why they keep coming back to see us”.

    All five are “either side of 50 now”, he said, and he feels it: “I struggle with my body and particularly my back, my shoulder, my hips, my knees.”

    Waite, in his mid-50s, thought he would “be sitting on a beach somewhere by this stage”, he said.

    Instead he points to one of this year’s Strictly judges: “Anton Du Beke is five years older than me and he’s still dancing. He’s such a legend, and an inspiration, too.”

    The Strictly legends at the bar (Image: Senbla)

    Kovalev met his wife, Countdown’s Rachel Riley, on Strictly, and said she and their two daughters will be in the audience for one of the shows.

    Tickets for Swansea Arena on Friday 9 October

    Swansea is the sixth night of a 31-date tour that opened in Fareham on Saturday and finishes at Cardiff’s New Theatre on 8 November.

    Tickets start at £35.20, plus a £3.95 transaction fee, through the arena.

    Three days later, Harry Enfield brings his first solo tour to the arena.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    STRICTLY: Gavin & Stacey’s Melanie Walters completes the 2026 line-up, and Gower will all be watching
    The Swansea-born actress in this year’s series.

    SWANSEA: Harry Enfield to unleash the character the BBC banned at his arena show
    Enfield brings his first solo tour to the arena on Monday 12 October.

    SWANSEA: Love Actually is coming to the arena with a full live orchestra this Christmas
    The only Welsh night of the tour, on Sunday 6 December.

    More on Strictly Come Dancing
    Every Strictly story with a Swansea connection.

    #dance #MelanieWalters #StrictlyComeDancing #Swansea #SwanseaArena
  6. SWANSEA: Love Actually is coming to the arena with a full live orchestra this Christmas

    Love Actually is coming to Swansea this Christmas, with a full orchestra playing the soundtrack live as the film runs on a huge screen.

    The show, Love Actually Live in Concert, plays Swansea Building Society Arena on Sunday 6 December, for one night only.

    It is the only Welsh date on a 14-stop UK tour that opens at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on 30 November and finishes at Portsmouth’s Guildhall on 22 December.

    Outside Wales, the nearest stops are Bath’s Forum on 4 December and Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on 14 December.

    Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman and Bill Nighy on the big screen

    Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, Alan Rickman and Bill Nighy lead the cast.

    Laura Linney, Martine McCutcheon, Rowan Atkinson and Martin Freeman also star.

    Grant plays a Prime Minister who falls for a junior member of his Downing Street staff, played by McCutcheon.

    Nighy is an ageing rock star chasing the Christmas number one, while Neeson plays a widower helping his stepson through his first crush.

    Liam Neeson and Thomas Brodie-Sangster in Love Actually (Image: JOY. Concerts)

    Richard Curtis wrote and directed the 2003 film, a set of linked stories about love, friendship, family and heartbreak in London in the weeks before Christmas.

    Craig Armstrong’s score, played live in time with the film

    The whole film is shown in high definition while the orchestra plays Craig Armstrong’s score in sync with the action on screen, organisers say.

    More than two decades on, the film is back on television every year and has become a Christmas tradition for millions, according to the promoters.

    Tickets for the Swansea Arena night on 6 December

    Tickets are available through the tour website, loveactuallyinconcert.com.

    Our reviewer Jonathan Marshall will be at the arena on the night, and his verdict will follow.

    Last month he reviewed Q The Music’s James Bond Concert Spectacular at the Grand, and called it “a wonderful night out”.

    Before then, Harry Enfield brings his first solo tour to the arena on Monday 12 October.

    The tour is promoted by JOY. Concerts, a Brighton promoter that has been putting on shows since 2008.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    SWANSEA: Harry Enfield to unleash the character the BBC banned at his arena show
    Enfield brings his first solo tour to the arena on Monday 12 October.

    SWANSEA: Gregory Porter opens his 2027 UK tour at the Arena
    The two-time Grammy winner starts his summer tour in Swansea on 24 June 2027.

    LIVE MUSIC REVIEW: ‘Stirred rather than shaken’, Q The Music’s James Bond Concert Spectacular at the Grand
    Jonathan Marshall on a night of Bond themes at Swansea Grand Theatre.

    More from Swansea Arena
    Every show and announcement from the waterfront venue.

    #Christmas #LoveActually #Swansea #SwanseaArena
  7. GLASTONBURY 2027: Coach tickets from Swansea go on sale on Sunday, the same morning as the festival tickets

    Coach tickets from Swansea to Glastonbury 2027 go on sale on Sunday 4 October, the same morning the festival’s own tickets go up for grabs.

    National Express, the festival’s official coach provider, says its services will run from 91 pick-up points across the UK, Swansea among them, straight to the gates of Worthy Farm, with fares from £24 one way.

    The timing matters. Glastonbury’s general admission sale opens at 9am that Sunday, and after a year without a festival the operator is braced for a rush.

    “Following a fallow year, anticipation for Glastonbury 2027 is at an all-time high,” said Bhavik Patel, senior commercial manager at National Express. “We expect substantial demand as festivalgoers prepare for their long-awaited return to Worthy Farm.”

    Two sales, two days, and you need to have registered already

    Anyone hoping to go needed to have registered with the festival by 5pm last Friday, 25 September. Registration has closed, and without it there is no way to buy.

    The festival’s own ticket-plus-coach packages, which bundle the travel in, go on sale first, at 6pm on Thursday 1 October. General admission tickets follow at 9am on Sunday 4 October.

    A ticket costs £408 including the £5 booking fee, with a £100 deposit to pay at the time of booking and the balance due between 1 and 7 April 2027. Each booking can cover up to six people.

    The National Express tickets announced today are the other route in: buy a standard festival ticket on Sunday, then book the coach separately from the same day.

    What £24 buys you: 20kg of luggage and a drop-off at the gates

    Every coach ticket includes a 20kg hold luggage allowance plus one piece of soft hand luggage, the company says, and the coaches drop passengers at the festival’s own on-site coach station, within 100 metres of the gates.

    “Having proudly served Glastonbury attendees for over 25 years, we look forward to welcoming thousands back onboard,” Mr Patel said. “Whether it’s your first visit or you’re a seasoned regular, our goal is to ensure your journey marks the perfect start to the weekend.”

    “With a generous 20kg luggage allowance included, you can bring all your festival gear, relax, and let our drivers take you straight to the gates.”

    Which day the Swansea coach runs

    National Express’s Glastonbury page already lists its earliest 2027 departures, from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hamilton and Carlisle on Wednesday 23 June, but the rest of the timetable, including the Swansea day, still shows last festival’s dates and is due to be updated when sales open.

    If 2025 is the guide, every pick-up point ran on the festival’s opening Wednesday, with a second wave the next day from Cardiff, Newport and Bristol among others, and every route ran home on the Monday.

    Swansea already has a pitch at Worthy Farm

    The city has form at the festival. Sol Cinema, the solar-powered picture house built from a 50-year-old caravan, played 18 hours of short films in the Theatre and Circus fields in 2025, as it did in 2022 and 2023.

    There was no festival this summer, with 2026 a planned fallow year to let the farm recover. Glastonbury 2027 runs from Wednesday 23 to Sunday 27 June at Worthy Farm, Pilton, in Somerset.

    National Express’s advice is to book the coach as soon as the festival tickets are in hand, at nationalexpress.com/glastonbury.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    Swansea’s smallest cinema will perform at Glastonbury Festival
    Sol Cinema’s 2025 booking in the Theatre and Circus fields.

    Swansea shoppers in with a chance of finding free Glastonbury tickets
    The Tony’s Chocolonely golden tickets hidden in Oxfam’s Swansea shops.

    Rail strikes drive a surge in passengers switching to coach travel
    National Express’s 19 million passengers and 150 new coaches.

    More festival coverage from Swansea Bay News
    Every story on festivals here and the ones we travel to.

    #coach #Festival #GlastonburyFestival #musicFestival #NationalExpress #Swansea
  8. SWANSEA: The earring maker who still takes cash at markets, and the hour it costs her to bank it

    Ellie Jones has two jobs and one rule for market day: take the cash.

    The Swansea maker behind Ear Candy Handmade UK, a zero-waste polymer clay earring brand she started in 2020, says the sums are simple. “Taking cash at markets is great because there are no card fees involved, which can make a real difference for a small business,” she said.

    The catch comes afterwards. “Depending on where I’m working, paying that cash into a bank branch could easily add an extra hour onto my day.”

    That hour matters because Ear Candy is squeezed around a full-time job as a greetings card designer. “Time is literally everything to me,” she said. “Ear Candy is my side business and I fit it in wherever I can. Anything that makes the practical side of running the business quicker and easier gives me more time to focus on making my products, attending markets and growing the business.”

    Her fix is the counter closest to home. “Being able to deposit my market takings at my local post office is more convenient and means I can spend that time back with customers or working on new earring designs.”

    The stall set up outside Swansea Museum (Image: Ear Candy Handmade UK)Polymer clay studs and dangles, from £8 a pair (Image: Ear Candy Handmade UK)

    Ear Candy’s earrings are made with hypoallergenic surgical steel, with a sterling silver upgrade for sensitive ears, packed in recycled or reused materials and made mostly from UK-sourced supplies. Ellie says she makes and packs every piece herself.

    Why the Post Office wants you to hear this

    Ellie’s story reaches us through the Post Office, which commissioned a OnePoll survey of 500 small business owners, sole traders and side hustlers and would like more of them paying their takings in over its counters.

    Its findings, as the Post Office presents them: 58% say their business would struggle if it could only take cards, 71% agree that “cash is king”, and owners reckon 29% of the payments they receive are in notes and coins. Counting, managing and banking that cash takes them 178 hours a year, the Post Office says, or 22 working days.

    A third say they have skipped a break to get to the bank and 13% have shut the shop to do it. Seven in ten have put off paying money in for want of time, and of those, 61% kept the takings at home and 26% carried them around.

    The card machine has its own costs, the survey says. Asked what puts them off going further down the card route, 43% named processing fees, 27% the dependence on technology and 19% the hit to cash flow while payments clear, and 11% would rather take cash only.

    “Cash flow is the lifeblood of many small businesses, but depositing cash shouldn’t become a burden,” said Ben Hunter Woollard, the Post Office’s head of banking. “What seems like a simple trip to pay in takings can often mean valuable time away from customers and running the business.”

    Where the counters are going

    The survey lands as the bank counters keep closing. Lloyds shuts its Gorseinon branch on 12 October, leaving Principality as the town’s last provider, with a banking hub at 20 High Street due to take over, its counter run by Post Office staff. Mumbles got its hub in May, joining Morriston.

    The “local post office” is not always there either. Kidwelly has been without one since March, with the town’s MP asking for a mobile van while a community group works to reopen the Station Road branch.

    The customers are moving the other way. Fewer than half of UK adults now think a wallet is essential, the cash machine network LINK found last year, with the typical person carrying £20 and 7% carrying nothing at all. LINK’s own advice was to keep some cash anyway, since almost two thirds of people have been caught out by a payment failing.

    For a trader with a cash box and a day job, the question is not whether cash still works at the market stall. It is whether there is anywhere left to put it when she gets home.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    GORSEINON: Banking hub to open at former High Street vintage shop in September
    The Post Office-run counter arriving as the town’s last bank shuts.

    KIDWELLY: Send in a mobile post office, MP tells bosses, as the town’s five-month wait goes on
    The town that lost its post office in March.

    Fewer than half of UK adults carry a wallet as cashless trend grows
    LINK’s warning about relying on one way to pay.

    More on cash and cashless from Swansea Bay News
    Every story on how we pay.

    #cash #cashless #EarCandyHandmadeUK #PostOffice #smallBusiness #Swansea
  9. SWANSEA: The seasonal temp who joined Amazon in 2010 is now running the whole Swansea warehouse

    A Swansea man who first walked into Amazon’s fulfilment centre as a seasonal temp has been put in charge of the whole site.

    Chris Bailey, who was born and raised locally and lives 15 minutes from the building, has been named the new site leader at the Amazon warehouse at Crymlyn Burrows.

    He joined in 2010 as a seasonal associate while completing a master’s degree in business management, specialising in operations.

    After being accepted onto several graduate schemes, he chose Amazon, and the company says he became only the second graduate ever to work at its Swansea site.

    From area manager to Swindon and back to Swansea

    Since then he has worked through almost every level of the business, Amazon says, moving from area manager to operations manager.

    He later joined the transport side as regional operations manager for the West Cluster, overseeing seven sites stretching from Swansea to Swindon and as far north as Redditch.

    Amazon credits him with helping shape its strategy for delivery estimate accuracy, meaning how reliably parcels turn up on the date customers are promised. It says mechanisms he brought in are still used across its network today.

    He returned to the Swansea site in 2024 and passed his site leader assessment in February.

    The 832,000 sq ft Swansea site he now runs

    Chris Bailey outside the Swansea fulfilment centre, which opened in 2007. (Image: Amazon)

    The Swansea fulfilment centre opened in 2007, creating jobs for up to 1,700 people.

    Its aisles hold around 4.2 million storage locations, a scale two young interns got to grips with earlier this year.

    Amazon says it is one of only three of its UK buildings to handle incoming stock, outgoing orders and customer returns under one roof.

    ‘Comfortable being uncomfortable’

    “I really love this building, and I love what Amazon has given me,” Chris said.

    “I’m naturally quite introverted, and Amazon has stretched me and pushed me outside my comfort zone. Early in my career, I realised I had to become comfortable being uncomfortable, because that’s where true growth comes from.”

    He added: “By the end of this year, I’ll be completely different to how I started it. That’s the thing that still amazes me about working here.”

    His advice to anyone thinking of joining was to “stay open to new opportunities, lean into your strengths, and don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone”.

    “It’s been a journey, and I’m really proud of what the team here in Swansea continues to achieve,” he said.

    His route up through the building mirrors that of area manager Sara Evans, who started there as a stower at 18 and now runs teams on the same floor.

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    #Amazon #AmazonDistributionCentre #CrymlynBurrows #jobs #Swansea
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  17. SWANSEA: The family firm behind the city’s free Christmas dinner at the Brangwyn Hall says it has given £250,000 to good causes

    The family business behind Swansea’s free Christmas dinner for people who are homeless or alone says it has now given more than £250,000 to local charities and community groups.

    JR Group, the family-run events and hospitality business, says the figure is made up of fundraising, sponsorship, donations and in-kind support built up over years of work across south-west Wales.

    The milestone comes as the firm prepares to launch this year’s Together at Christmas campaign with the council.

    The event has become a fixture of the city’s festive calendar at the Brangwyn Hall. Last year’s, on 9 December, offered a free two-course Christmas dinner, live entertainment and stalls with help and advice.

    Visitors could also pick up food and clothing, get a free haircut, and find hygiene supplies, children’s books and pet care help, with free minibuses running from the city centre.

    The firm says the project has run for more than 10 years and has always been about more than a meal. It brings charities, volunteers and businesses together in the belief that “nobody should feel forgotten, especially at Christmas”.

    “We’ve never been the biggest business, but we’ve always believed in punching above our weight”

    Jessica Rice, director of JR Group, said the family business had “always believed that success should be measured by more than commercial achievements alone”.

    “The communities we serve have supported us throughout our journey, and we’ve always felt a responsibility to give something back,” she said.

    She said the milestone “belongs to far more people than just us”, and credited the firm’s team, clients, partners and supporters.

    “We’ve never been the biggest business, but we’ve always believed in punching above our weight when it comes to supporting our communities. Quite simply, it’s the right thing to do.”

    Jamie Rice, who co-owns the business with his wife Jess, said the focus was on what comes next. “There are always individuals, charities and organisations who need support,” he said.

    Schools, sports clubs and a magazine relaunch

    Alongside Together at Christmas, the firm says it has backed grassroots groups, schools, sports clubs and community projects through events, hospitality, fundraising and volunteering as well as cash.

    JR Group also runs food and drink at Swansea Council venues including the Brangwyn Hall, and has relaunched Swansea Life magazine.

    Details of this year’s Together at Christmas, including the date, are still to be announced. Last year’s date was confirmed in October.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

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  18. SWANS: New images show how the fan zone behind the South Stand could look

    Swansea City supporters have had their first proper look at the fan zone planned behind the South Stand, in new images included in the club’s planning application.

    An artist’s impression shows fans in club shirts gathered outside a long grey building decked out with the Swans crest and player graphics, with the stadium’s white steel frame alongside.

    The images are in a design statement by AFL Architects, submitted to Swansea Council with the full application lodged on Tuesday.

    Room for 1,000 fans, a stage and a big screen

    The design statement says the fan zone will hold about 1,000 supporters, with food and drink kiosks, a covered stage and a mobile big screen.

    It will be split into family and adult areas, with alcohol served in the adult zone only.

    A coffee servery facing the path will keep serving passers-by even when the fan zone itself is closed.

    On matchdays it would open three hours before kick-off and close one to two hours after it, according to the statement.

    On other days the club envisages supporter events, performances, student events, food and drink events, festive markets and craft fairs.

    A five-year building and a permanent Changing Places toilet

    The main building is a steel frame with a fabric roof, about 40 metres long and clad in grey metal to match the South Stand. The statement says it will run on a five-year temporary basis.

    That is a different design from the one first shown in April, which had a mezzanine gallery with self-pour beer taps and room for more than 1,700.

    Alongside it will be a permanent toilet block, with a Changing Places room offering extra space and specialist equipment for disabled people who need help from a carer.

    The architects say the block will also serve the South Stand concourse on matchdays and take pressure off the stadium’s existing toilets.

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    Murals by local artists planned for the walls

    Sections of the fan zone and toilet block walls, including the side facing the public path, have been set aside for murals by local artists, subject to the final artwork being agreed.

    The design statement says the artwork could reflect the club’s identity and its relationship with the community, and includes four examples with a Swansea City theme.

    Mural examples included in the fan zone design statement. (Images: Swansea City AFC / AFL Architects planning documents)

    Nine new trees and changes to the memorial garden

    Three trees next to the public path will come down for construction. Nine new ones will be planted on the rough ground beside Brunel Way, a net gain of six, according to the architects.

    When the application went in, the club said the memorial garden’s footprint would change but the garden would stay where it is. The design statement says part of its brick wall and fencing will be removed so the garden can be reduced and reconfigured.

    The club has asked anyone with questions about the garden to email [email protected].

    The Swansea.com Stadium from the air, from the fan zone planning documents. (Image: Swansea City AFC / AFL Architects)

    Security blocks that double as seating

    South Wales Police asked for barriers against vehicles when planners responded to the club’s early plans in May. Heavy modular blocks at the busy south-west corner will double as seating, alongside a 2.4m fence and CCTV.

    Fans arriving on foot or by bike will use the existing walking and cycling path past the fan zone, which links to the footbridge over the Tawe.

    Supporters crossing the footbridge over the Tawe on the way to the stadium, from the fan zone planning documents. (Image: Swansea City AFC / AFL Architects)

    The scheme would take out 46 car parking spaces, 34 of them used by players on matchdays. The club says it will manage that with fewer parking permits or by bringing players in by coach.

    A December opening target

    The club has said it wants the fan zone open in December, though it is prepared to follow “alternative timelines as required”.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    SWANS: Fan zone plans lodged for behind the South Stand
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  19. SWANSEA: Leeds Building Society promises its branch will stay open until at least 2031, as banks keep leaving

    Leeds Building Society has promised to keep its Swansea branch open until at least September 2031, at a time when other banks are still pulling out of high streets across the region.

    The pledge covers all 51 of the mutual’s branches across the UK. They will open every weekday from 9.30am to 4.45pm, with no appointment needed, the society says.

    The branch is on Union Street, the same street as the Santander branch that could become a Work Café.

    The small print says the promise is subject to “circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including legal, regulatory or safety requirements”.

    A five-year promise while Swansea Bay loses bank branches

    The pledge lands as other lenders retreat. NatWest’s branches in Llanelli and Port Talbot were due to close in early September, and Lloyds shuts its Gorseinon branch on 12 October.

    Santander has said it will make no further closures until at least 2028 while it looks at turning its Union Street branch into a Work Café.

    A few doors up Union Street, the Halifax could be next. Lloyds Banking Group is winding down the Halifax brand and moving its customers to Lloyds, and the Halifax in Llanelli closes on 3 November.

    No closure has been announced for the Swansea branch, but a Lloyds already sits around 160 metres away on Oxford Street.

    “We know that for many people in Swansea having access to a local branch still matters,” said Graham Binns, head of the society’s branch network.

    “Whether it’s opening a savings account, getting help to protect themselves from fraud, or simply speaking to someone face-to-face, our branches provide a service that many members value.”

    The society says 29% of the savings accounts it opened in the last year were opened in a branch, and almost one in ten branch users were aged 30 or under. Its branches also run free fraud clinics.

    No new-customer-only deals, and a 6.5% saver for existing members

    The society is also promising not to offer savings accounts that are only for new customers, and says existing savers will get exclusive deals.

    One is a new Branch and Post Member Regular Saver paying 6.50%. The small print limits it to people who were members on or before 31 December 2025, with up to £250 a month and £3,000 in total over a year.

    The rate is variable, the account can only be opened in a branch or by post, and one withdrawal a year is allowed without losing interest. The society’s own example, paying in the maximum every month, earns £89.38 in interest.

    It says it aims to pay more than the market average. Over the past ten years, it says, its average savings rate was 2.26%, against a market average of 1.49%, based on figures from the data firm CACI.

    Savers will be offered the best available rate on their chosen account when it matures, the society says. Its savings promises run until at least September 2027, while the branch promise runs to 2031.

    “That’s why we’re making a clear commitment that our Swansea branch will remain open until at least September 2031,” Mr Binns said.

    The full list of promises is on the Leeds Building Society website.

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  21. SWANSEA: The Cwtch Mawr warehouse has a new name, and a UK-wide charity award to go with it

    A Swansea Vale warehouse that takes brand-new goods businesses cannot sell and gets them to families who cannot afford the basics has won a UK-wide charity award.

    Faith in Families collected the Charity Sustainability Award at the Charity Times Awards, held at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square on Wednesday night. The Royal British Legion and Poppy Scotland won the same category two years ago.

    The award is for the charity’s multibank, the project Swansea knows as Cwtch Mawr. It has now been renamed Multibank Cymru.

    The idea behind it is simple. Businesses hand over new surplus stock, from clothing and toiletries to baby products, bedding and household goods, and the charity moves it through trusted community organisations to people facing poverty, crisis and hardship.

    This month that meant around 35,000 items of school uniform landing in 26 schools across Swansea and Bridgend.

    The charity says the award is only possible because of its partners, and it singles out Amazon and Multibank UK. It says they helped supply the infrastructure, expertise and access to surplus goods the model needed to run at scale.

    “Behind every single item is a person”: the Multibank Cymru manager on the Swansea Vale warehouse

    Jon Waite runs the warehouse. “We see the pallets and the products moving through the warehouse every day, but behind every single item is a person,” he said.

    “It could be a child who needs the right clothes for school, a parent trying to stretch the household budget, or somebody facing a crisis who needs a bit of pressure taken away.”

    “This is what partnership looks like when it works,” he added. “Businesses provide the goods and expertise, our team creates the infrastructure to move them, and trusted organisations make sure they reach the people who need them.”

    Cherrie Bija: “small organisations can create big change”

    Cherrie Bija, the charity’s chief executive, called it “an incredibly proud moment for Faith in Families, for Swansea and for Wales”.

    “We are a relatively small charity, but we have always believed that small organisations can create big change when the right people come together,” she said.

    The trophy follows her own win in May, when she was named Public and Third Sector Director of the Year at the IoD Wales awards.

    “To bring this award home to Wales means more than I can put into words,” she said.

    Faith in Families chief executive Cherrie Bija with the Charity Sustainability Award (Image: Faith in Families)

    From Y Siop at Gower College Swansea to the Dulais Valley: where Multibank Cymru’s goods end up

    The charity is putting more of the stock where people already are. That includes Y Siop at Gower College Swansea, where students can pick up essentials in a setting they know.

    A growing network of what the charity calls Cwtch Cubbies works as local drop points closer to the communities that need them.

    The multibank began pushing beyond Swansea in January with a pilot through five hubs in Port Talbot, the Afan Valley, Neath, the Dulais Valley and Pontardawe.

    It opened in 2024, and the charity describes it as Wales’ first multibank. It moved into its expanded Swansea Vale warehouse last summer.

    The Charity Times Awards, now in their 27th year, recognise work across the UK charity sector.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

    SWANSEA: Faith in Families CEO Cherrie Bija named IoD Wales Director of the Year in public and third sector category
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    #Amazon #Charity #CherrieBija #CwtchMawr #CwtchMawrMultibank #FaithInFamilies #GowerCollegeSwansea #Multibank #MultibankCymru #Swansea
  22. LITTLE WIND STREET: Makeover approved for Swansea’s nightlife lane

    The blue and yellow murals on Little Wind Street are coming off. Swansea Council has approved a makeover of the lane between Wind Street and York Street that strips the 2015 paintwork back to brick, hangs strings of light overhead and puts a steel gateway arch across the York Street end.

    The applicant, Greenridge Swansea Propco Limited, which owns The City Gates block, says in its planning statement that the street “now looks tired” and that three of its units were empty when the plans went in. Its aim is to make the lane “a destination” rather than “a service access road”.

    The arch the council sent back

    The first version of the arch, drawn in October 2024, was clad to look like stone. The council’s placemaking team told the architects, Rio, that its “apparent solid form” risked being “a pastiche of structural stone construction”, and asked for a metal skeleton instead.

    What was approved is bare welded steel in a corroded-metal finish, about 7.45 metres tall with a four-metre gap beneath for fire engines, “Little Wind Street” lettered across the top and CNC-cut panels backlit at night. A smaller matching arch sits beside it. The council’s heritage lead called the redesign “welcomed in particular”.

    The arch the council sent back, left, and the steel skeleton it approved, right (Image: Rio Architects / Greenridge Swansea Propco)

    Lights, blades and a wall of colour

    The old street poles go, replaced by lights mounted on the buildings and strung across the lane. Arup, the lighting designers, had to swap the uplighters for downlighters after the council’s ecologist warned that upward light “is detrimental to bats and night-flying birds”.

    Strings of light overhead replace the street poles, with planters and seating along the lane (Image: Rio Architects / Greenridge Swansea Propco)

    Around the roof of the nightclub at Unit 17, a “shroud” of vertical blades in alternating colours hides the extractor plant. At the southern end a multi-coloured corrugated wall covers the blank side of York Chambers, and raised planters with built-in benches mark out spill-out seating for the bars.

    The ‘feature shroud’ of coloured blades around the nightclub roof, built to hide the extractor plant (Image: Rio Architects / Greenridge Swansea Propco)

    Hops for the brewery, water for the Tawe

    The patterned panels on the walls carry a hops symbol, for the Hancock’s Brewery that stood on the east side of the lane into the 20th century, and a water symbol for the River Tawe. The chevrons, spirals and dots around them are borrowed from Norman and Viking art; the applicant’s research says the lane may pre-date the castle.

    Information panels on the wayfinding posts are meant to explain all this to anyone standing outside Bunkers at midnight.

    Raised planters with built-in seating, and the patterned panels carrying the hops and water symbols (Image: Rio Architects / Greenridge Swansea Propco)

    What the council checked

    Nobody objected: the site notice drew no public responses. Highways worried about deliveries until the landlord confirmed a layby stays, and the placemaking officer said the scheme fits the emerging plan for the city centre’s lanes, while asking, without requiring, for a green wall on the big blank facade.

    Approval under delegated powers comes with four conditions, one of them that the planters are RAL 7012 Basalt Grey, after an officer spotted a different grey on the drawings. Work must start within five years; no date or cost is given. Tenants’ signs need separate advertisement consent.

    Who is on the lane

    The Swansea Jack opened here last November as the club’s official sports bar, with a Premier Inn on the floors above and Bunkers on the Victoria Road corner. The block was built in 2006 and 2007 as Salubrious Place and renamed The City Gates in 2015, the same year the landlord painted the murals it is now removing.

    Looking towards the Bunkers corner, with new signage bands and wall lights on the refreshed facades (Image: Rio Architects / Greenridge Swansea Propco)

    The corner of the city that is all building site

    Little Wind Street is the part the council’s own scheme never reached. When the £3m Wind Street upgrade was nearing completion in 2021, council leader Rob Stewart said the authority was “also looking at making lanes and alleys connecting to Wind Street cleaner and safer spaces”. Four years on, it is the landlord doing it.

    From the new arch, York Street runs down to the site where the St David’s car park has just been flattened for the Porth Copr offices, and at the other end of Wind Street Castle Square is a building site until late 2027, when its two cafe pavilions and big screen are due to open.

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  23. SWANS: Fan zone plans lodged for behind the South Stand

    Swansea City supporters could have a covered bar for more than 1,700 behind the South Stand by Christmas. The club says its final planning application went in on Tuesday and diggers will be on site within days.

    The plans it first showed in April put a 40-metre building with self-pour beer taps, a stage, a big screen and bierkeller benches on what is now a service road, open on matchdays and for events in between.

    The memorial garden

    The club says some of the early work means that if the project is completed “the footprint of the memorial garden at the stadium will be altered, although the garden will remain in its current location”. It has not said how.

    Anyone with concerns or questions about changes to the garden is asked to email [email protected].

    December, but no promises

    The application mentions an intention to open in December, the club says, adding in the same statement that “the priority with this process is to make sure the final venue is fit for purpose” and that it is prepared to follow “alternative timelines as required”.

    It is the second date to move. In April the club wanted the fan zone open for the start of this season.

    The site behind the South Stand outlined in red in the April pre-application drawings, with the tree-lined path, the lampposts and the substation the architects had to work around (Image: Swansea City FC / AFL Architects)

    What the council asked for

    Planners gave the scheme the green light in principle in May and handed the club’s architects a list. The building had to pull back from the row of trees along the walking and cycling path on the site’s northern edge, the mezzanine needed lifts for wheelchair users, and South Wales Police wanted crash-rated barriers to stop a vehicle being driven into a crowd.

    Noise was flagged for the Copper Quarter flats to the east, with a noise assessment and operating hours to be set out. At more than 1,700 capacity the venue falls into the enhanced tier of Martyn’s Law, the counter-terror duty brought in after the Manchester Arena bombing.

    The club says it has “worked on some of the feedback and recommendations” from that process and held “positive discussions” with the council before submitting. Which of the planners’ points it has met will be in the application documents when they are published.

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    Why the club wants it

    The April drawings by AFL Architects showed food and drink kiosks, a raised gallery with self-pour taps and bench seating facing a big screen, with room for around 1,166 people at ground level and more than 1,766 once a mezzanine goes in above the kiosks.

    The club’s own brief said 72% of fans arrive more than an hour before kick-off and get a poor experience for it, with narrow concourses and slow service, and that too many spend their money elsewhere before the game.

    Consultation with supporters “has already started, and will continue”, the club says, with the aim of a venue that “meets the needs and requirements of as wide a range of supporters as possible”.

    Whose ground it is

    Swansea Council agreed in July to sell the club the stadium’s freehold, unanimously and with the price kept in a closed session. Council leader Rob Stewart told that meeting the authority would keep planning control over whatever the Swans brought forward for the site.

    This is the first test of that. The application will appear on the council’s planning portal for public comment before a decision is made.

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  24. SWANSEA HOUSE PRICES: Mumbles down 5.7%, Castle up 7.8%, and the map that shows what your street sold for

    The typical Swansea home sold for £203,000 in the year to April, up 1.5% on the year before, according to a new analysis that cuts every Land Registry sale in the county into 250-metre squares. That headline hides most of what happened.

    In Mumbles the median sold price fell 5.7% to £363,000. In Castle ward, the city centre, it rose 7.8% to £127,500. Between them lie 33 wards moving in different directions, and a map on which you can find your own street.

    The coast fell, the east rose

    The ten wards where prices fell most are almost all on the coast: Mumbles, Bishopston (down 4.6% to £385,000), West Cross (down 4.5% to £344,000), Mayals, Pennard, Gower and Sketty, the county’s busiest market with 397 sales in two years, down 0.9% to £287,500.

    The risers are the other side of the city: Castle, Cwmbwrla (up 6.2% to £140,000), St Thomas (up 6.1% to £140,000), Penderry, Bôn-y-maen, Cockett, Landore and Llansamlet, where the median reached £183,000. Morriston, the county’s second-biggest market, was flat at £180,000.

    Lorcan O’Connor, who runs Housometer, the site behind the analysis, said the pattern was the striking finding: “the higher-end southern part of the city is seeing prices decline whilst the urban centre is still rising”.

    The £355,000 gap

    The cheapest ward to buy in was Castle, at a median of £127,500. The dearest was Gower, at £482,500, nearly four times as much. Penllergaer, at £314,000, was the most expensive ward away from the coast.

    Across the county the middle 80% of sales ran from £88,000 to £725,000. The single most common price paid was between £150,000 and £175,000, with 692 sales in that band, and 13 homes sold for more than £1m, all of them detached.

    What each kind of home fetched

    Detached homes did best, with the median up 4.6% to £340,000. Semis rose 3.2% to £210,000 and terraces 3.3% to £155,000. Flats went nowhere, at £130,000.

    Fewer homes changed hands: 2,637 sales in the year to April against 3,036 the year before, though Housometer says the most recent months are still being registered and will fill in.

    Buyers came back in August, surveyors say

    The sales figures stop in April, and the estate agents’ trade body says the summer looked different. In the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ August survey, a net balance of 44% of Welsh surveyors reported more new buyers, the strongest reading in two years, and 50% reported more agreed sales. On prices, a net 10% saw rises, after a flat July.

    Anthony Filice of Kelvin Francis in Cardiff said: “Against all expectations, the market in August was very busy.” The RICS head of market research, Tarrant Parsons, was more careful, calling any recovery “fragile” with the Bank of England sounding hawkish and the October Budget prompting speculation about property taxes.

    Six years in one line

    The quarterly figures show the road here. A typical Swansea home sold for £162,000 in spring 2020, £190,100 in spring 2022 and £200,000 in spring 2024, and has sat between £207,000 and £210,000 through the past year.

    Price per square metre, which strips out the size of what sold, tells the same story: £2,345 across the county, from about £1,550 in Castle and Landore to £3,947 in Gower and £3,712 in Mumbles.

    How to read the map

    The map below colours every 250-metre square with three or more sales by its median price, and the third view shows which are rising and which are falling. Housometer’s figures come from HM Land Registry’s price paid records and the EPC register, and are fixed at sales recorded to April 2026, so they will not change as new sales register.

    Each square is a median of a handful of sales, so any one hexagon can be skewed by a single house; the pattern across an area is the finding, not the colour of your own square. The UK House Price Index, the official measure, puts Swansea at £205,566 and up 1.1% in April, using the same sales and a different method.

    Related stories from Swansea Bay News

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    Every story on what homes across south west Wales are selling for.

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    Mumbles
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    #featured #HMLandRegistry #housePrices #Mumbles #RICS #Swansea
  25. SWANSEA: Free street food festival back on Museum Green next weekend, with 20 traders and no two selling the same thing

    A free street food festival returns to Museum Green, next to the National Waterfront Museum, next weekend, with around 20 traders and a bar built around Welsh drinks.

    Big Food Festival runs from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 September, from 11am to 9.30pm, with last entry at 8pm.

    Entry is free. Full details, including how to book, are on the festival’s website at bigfoodfestival.co.uk.

    The site is family and dog friendly, with live music and entertainment across the three days.

    The traders coming to Museum Green

    The organisers say every trader is chosen by them, and that no two stalls serve the same cuisine.

    Named so far are Fire & Flank, Burger Bros, Alla Greek and 2 Lads Afghan, with Try Crumble and Custard on dessert.

    Two Lads Kitchen, one of the traders coming to Swansea, and a gyros from a previous festival (Image: Big Food Festival)

    The bar will pour drinks from Tiny Rebel, Mortal Bunny, Gwynt y Ddraig and Au Vodka.

    Desserts and loaded fries from previous Big Food Festival events (Image: Big Food Festival)

    From the Gnoll to six festivals a year

    Big Food Festival was set up in 2025 by Maria Gania and Stephanie Silva, and held its first event at Gnoll Country Park in Neath.

    It ran three events in its first year and six this year, including an Easter event in Swansea. The founders say they plan more in 2027, across Wales and possibly into the south west of England.

    Maria Gania, co-founder and event director, said: “We started Big Food Festival because we wanted a community day out where the food is brilliant and nobody pays just to walk through the gate.”

    “Swansea has such a strong food scene, so we can’t wait to bring the whole BFF crew down for the weekend,” she said.

    Stephanie Silva, co-founder and site manager, said: “We choose every trader ourselves and make sure there’s no doubling up on cuisines.”

    “It means people can come down, try something new at every stall and leave planning their next visit,” she said.

    Families at a previous Big Food Festival (Image: Big Food Festival)

    If you go

    • Where: Museum Green, next to the National Waterfront Museum
    • When: Friday 25 to Sunday 27 September, 11am to 9.30pm, last entry 8pm
    • Entry: free
    • Details: bigfoodfestival.co.uk
    • Family and dog friendly

    More from Swansea Bay News

    Food and drink
    Openings, closures and the best of the local food scene.

    More Swansea news
    All our coverage from the city.

    Street food
    Traders, markets and festivals across south west Wales.

    #BigFoodFestival #NationalWaterfrontMuseum #StreetFood #Swansea
  26. Dolphins dramatically saved in Mumbles after race against time rescue operation

    Two dolphins were found thrashing in shallow waters One dolphin required further attention(Image: British Divers Marine Life Rescue…
    #NewsBeep #News #Wildlife #environment #Mumbles #Science #Swansea #UK #UnitedKingdom
    newsbeep.com/uk/771374/

  27. Amy Dillwyn blue plaque, Swansea.

    The plaque says: “Amy Dillwyn World's first female Industrialist (1845-1935) Lived here 1906-1935”

    Please share:
    discoveralone.com/?lat=51.5848

    #Plaques #Wales #Swansea #HolidayIdeas

  28. Iconic Swansea restaurant to open sister brasserie in city centre

    Those behind the business promise it will be the ‘new home for high-class cuisine right in the city centre’ La Cantina Royal is moving into the Princess Quarter development in Swansea city centre An iconic It…
    #dining #cooking #diet #food #Italianbistrofood #bistrofood #Italia #Italian #italiano #italy #Restaurants #Swansea
    diningandcooking.com/2798740/i

  29. Leaving #swansea for Aberdeen. I won't be back till I do my PhD defence

  30. Very smokey start in #Swansea bay today 😕

  31. ‘She never forgot where she came from’: Bonnie Tyler mourners turn out for Swansea service
    By Bethan McKernan Wales correspondent

    Many in the crowd watching on screen outside minster have stories of meeting or knowing singer, who died in July

    theguardian.com/music/2026/aug

    #BonnieTyler #Swansea #Wales #UKnews #Music #Culture #TheGuardian #BethanMcKernanWalescorrespondent

  32. Thousands of Bonnie Tyler fans gather to pay respects as coffin brought home
    By Aneesa Ahmed

    Fans line streets, singing Total Eclipse of the Heart ahead of Welsh singer’s Swansea funeral

    theguardian.com/music/2026/aug

    #BonnieTyler #Music #Swansea #Culture #Wales #UKnews #TheGuardian #AneesaAhmed

  33. The Swansea that Charles Day opened his doors into was a different world: 1926 was the year of the General Strike, the town was still two decades ...#DaysMotorGroup #Swansea
    Day's Motor Group turns 100 years old today in Swansea
  34. ‘More #Inclusive #Icons and symbols for #Neurodivergent people.’

    A look at the work done by #Swansea University’s Zoe Alderson on “… how neurodivergent people understand and process the icons and symbols used in everyday life, from public signage and transport systems to websites, apps and digital communications.”

    swansea.ac.uk/press-office/new

    #Semiotics

  35. And an interesting looking research and policy related job at Swansea University. Deadline 2 August.

    Senior Project Officer: Knowledge Mobilisation

    #Swansea #Wales #Jobs #HE #Research

    swansea.ac.uk/jobs-at-swansea/

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