#swanseacouncil — Public Fediverse posts
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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.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Swans legends and city dignitaries mark opening of The Swansea Jack sports bar
The club’s official bar, on Little Wind Street since November.SWANSEA: St David’s car park all but gone as diggers chew through the last of the decks
The site at the bottom of York Street, cleared for Porth Copr.CASTLE SQUARE: New images show the copper and stone pavilions, as opening slips to the second half of 2027
The council’s own scheme at the top of Wind Street.New video shows Wind Street’s future
The 2021 fly-through of the council’s £3m upgrade, and the promise about the lanes.Wind Street
#LittleWindStreet #planningApplication #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil #WindStreet
Every story from the city’s best-known street. -
ST HELEN’S: Floodlights on the ground, sand on the pitch and the old terrace stripped bare, 15 days from the first game
Fifteen days before the first rugby at the rebuilt St Helen’s, the new floodlights are lying on the pitch. Photographs taken at the ground on Tuesday by Paul Rogers show a galvanised column laid flat across the artificial surface, with fitters bolting the LED lamp heads to its crossarm before the whole thing is winched upright.
LED lamp heads going onto the crossarm before the column is raised (Image: Paul Rogers)Behind it, one of the old lattice pylons is still standing. The remains of another lie in sections by the pavilion.
The tallest of them, long said to be the tallest sports floodlight in Europe at 150ft, came down in June after more than 60 years, as the council set out the full £7.6m plan for the ground.
Sand on the new pitch
The artificial pitch is being finished. A spreader has been running up and down the surface pouring sand into the fibres, the infill that gives a 3G pitch its grip and its give, and by Tuesday a wide band of the field was buried in it.
The sand spreader passes the floodlight crew (Image: Paul Rogers)Kerbs are being laid along the paths around the pitch, and new galvanised rails have gone in behind the dead-ball line.
Steel on the seafront side
On the Mumbles Road side, the steelwork for the new stand is going up, with a telehandler and cherry pickers raising columns onto concrete pads. The club’s plan puts a new stand there, moves the existing stand to the Mumbles end and adds a fan zone at the Guildhall end, for a finished capacity just under 7,000.
It is a 1,000-seat stand, and it has a name before it has a crowd: JCP Solicitors signed a six-figure deal last week to call it the JCP Solicitors Stand until 2031, the club’s longest-dated commercial agreement since it left Bridgend.
Columns going up on concrete pads on the seafront sideA telehandler beside the new pitch, with columns waiting on the ground(Images: Paul Rogers)The old terrace, stripped to the steps
Across the pitch, the terrace on the Bryn Road side has been cleared back to its concrete steps. The rusted crush barriers have been cut out and stacked, new galvanised ones are already bolted in, and a mound of broken blockwork sits where the top of the terrace met the houses.
Weeds between the steps and the flaking yellow paint on the step edges give away how long it has stood empty.
The terrace cleared back to its concrete stepsOld crush barriers cut out, new ones already in, and the rubble at the top(Images: Paul Rogers)A row of faded orange and brown seats is still fixed along the rail at the top, next to a peeling sign whose message has half gone.
This is the terrace that will have no roof when the Ospreys move in. The club said last week that a covered terrace has been pushed to a later phase with no date, and offered terrace season members a seat in the Family Stand instead.
Sand going into the artificial surfaceThe old seats along the top of the terrace, and the sign that has seen better days(Images: Paul Rogers)What happens next
The first game is Gower College against Cardiff and Vale College at 2.30pm on Wednesday 7 October, with Swansea University against Bath that evening. Swansea RFC play Ebbw Vale on 10 October, 150 years after they first made the ground their home.
The Ospreys’ first match is against the Dragons at 7pm on Saturday 24 October, with Cardiff a week later. Tickets for the Dragons game went on sale at 10am on Tuesday, in a capped first allocation the club says will grow as “operational milestones and remaining venue approvals” are completed. Richard Lancaster, the club’s managing director for business, said October “isn’t simply about one Ospreys fixture”, with schools, colleges, the university and Swansea RFC all using the ground.
Swansea Council is putting £7.6m into the ground and the Ospreys £2.6m, on a 50-year lease.
In return the council takes the freehold of the clubhouse and changing rooms on Bryn Road, folded into the Ospreys’ lease, and says its money secures community use for around 90 per cent of available hours outside major fixtures. Sport has been played on the site since 1876; cricket, there for a century and a half, moved to Sketty Lane after last season.
The Ospreys are building a home while their future is decided by someone else. The Welsh Rugby Union has guaranteed Cardiff and the Dragons two of three licences from 2028/29, leaving the Ospreys and the Scarlets to fight for the one left in the west.
Dave Reddin insisted on Friday that the cut is going ahead, calling it “the brutal economics of it all”. Swansea Council has resumed its High Court challenge against the union, and the process that decides who survives starts in December.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
ST HELEN’S: Rugby is back at the old ground on 7 October, and Gower College get first go at the new pitch
The full October schedule and how tickets are being released.ST HELEN’S: Terrace will have no roof when the Ospreys move in next month
The roof pushed to a later phase, and what supporters were told in July.OSPREYS: St Helen’s south stand to carry JCP Solicitors name for five years
The stand going up on the seafront side, and the deal behind its name.ST HELEN’S: New seafront stand, fan zone and near-7,000 capacity
What the council said the £7.6m rebuild would deliver.More on St Helen’s
#Ospreys #Rugby #StHelensStadium #SwanseaCouncil #SwanseaRFC
Every story on the rebuild of the Swansea ground. -
Empty Chinese restaurant that’s blighted Swansea street for years to be transformed https://www.diningandcooking.com/restaurants/30508/ #ChineseRestaurant #ChineseRestaurants #Restaurants #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil
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Empty Chinese restaurant that’s blighted Swansea street for years to be transformed https://www.diningandcooking.com/restaurants/30508/ #ChineseRestaurant #ChineseRestaurants #Restaurants #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil
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Empty Chinese restaurant that’s blighted Swansea street for years to be transformed https://www.diningandcooking.com/restaurants/30508/ #ChineseRestaurant #ChineseRestaurants #Restaurants #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil
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ST HELEN’S: Main stand stripped to its skeleton — and it’s moving to the Mumbles end
The main stand at St Helen’s has been stripped back to its steel skeleton — as new drone footage reveals just how far the famous old ground has been taken apart in its £7.6m rebuild.
The footage, released by the Ospreys, shows thousands of blue seats lifted out and stacked in rows along the touchline, with the stand’s raking steelwork laid bare beneath the Trade Centre Wales roof.
And it comes with news: the existing main stand is being relocated to the Mumbles end of the ground, where the club says it will be transformed into a new Family Stand — combining retained elements with new upgrades.
Under-16 season memberships in the Family Stand will start from £50, the Ospreys say.
The aerial shots show the full sweep of the works: the pitch stripped to bare earth, with rollers and dumpers compacting the surface and a cross of drainage stone laid where the new playing surface will go.
Along the Oystermouth Road side, demolition teams have been clearing mounds of twisted steel and cladding, with the boundary wall wrapped in scaffolding.
Demolition teams clear steel and cladding along the Oystermouth Road side (Image: Ospreys)Lorries have been carting material away throughout the week as the site is cleared and levelled.
Two workers can be seen unbolting seats high in the old stand, row by row — the last stage of emptying a structure that has watched over the ground for decades.
Crews remove the last seats from the old main stand, row by row (Image: Ospreys)The relocation means the stand’s story continues rather than ends: elements of the structure will be kept and rebuilt into the new family section.
It is the latest step in the transformation that will see the Ospreys move in next season — with a new seafront stand, a fan zone and a capacity of nearly 7,000 at the rebuilt ground.
The ground’s most visible change came last month, when Europe’s tallest sports floodlight came down after more than 60 years.
And the project’s community ambitions took shape earlier today, as Alun Wyn Jones joined the new Swansea Rugby Community Board steering how clubs and schools share in the redeveloped ground.
The board will help decide access to the new 3G pitch and facilities — with a player pathway planned from grassroots rugby through to the Ospreys.
St Helen’s has hosted Swansea RFC, Glamorgan cricket and Wales internationals across three centuries — and its rebuilt form is due to open for the coming season.
The Ospreys say further updates on the ground, and on season memberships, will follow over the summer.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
ST HELEN’S: New seafront stand, fan zone and near-7,000 capacity — council sets out full plans for £7.6m rebuild
The full plans for the transformed ground.ST HELEN’S: Alun Wyn Jones takes seat on new board steering the community side of the £7.6m rebuild
Today’s news of the board deciding how the community shares in the ground.ST HELEN’S: Europe’s tallest sports floodlight comes down after more than 60 years
#Ospreys #Rugby #SwanseaCouncil #SwanseaRFC
The moment the ground’s most famous landmark was dismantled. -
ST HELEN’S: Alun Wyn Jones takes seat on new board steering the community side of the £7.6m rebuild
Alun Wyn Jones has taken a seat on a new board created to steer the community side of St Helen’s £7.6m rebuild — as the Swansea Rugby Community Board met for the first time.
The board oversees the community programme at the heart of Swansea Council’s partnership with the Ospreys, who move into the redeveloped Brynmill ground next season.
Alongside the former Wales and British and Irish Lions captain sit Andy Moore — the former Ospreys and Wales player now community director of rugby — Mahaboob Basha of the Swansea Bay Muslim Consortium, Jamie Rewbridge of Activate West Wales, and former Wales international and entrepreneur Alecs Donovan.
The council says further members will be added so the board reflects the breadth of Swansea’s communities and rugby network.
Its job is to strengthen the links between grassroots and professional rugby — increasing participation, improving access to facilities, and supporting the development of players, coaches and volunteers.
That includes deciding how the community shares in the council’s investment at St Helen’s: year-round access to the new 3G pitch and upgraded facilities, alongside an expanded programme of coaching, education and community engagement.
Jones, who attended the first meeting, said: “It’s encouraging to see a board which brings together people who care deeply about the future of rugby in Swansea.”
He said he had experienced first-hand the opportunities community rugby creates, and that strong clubs, dedicated volunteers and inspiring coaches were the foundations of the game.
The board’s role, he said, was to make sure the investment created opportunities for everyone — “whether that’s a child picking up a rugby ball for the first time, a coach looking to develop their skills, or a local club accessing first-class facilities”.
Alun Wyn Jones with one of the youth teams during a visit to Waunarlwydd RFCWorking together, he added, could reconnect the grassroots and professional game and ensure St Helen’s “becomes a place that serves the whole community as well as elite rugby”.
Council leader Rob Stewart called the first meeting “another important milestone”, saying the investment was about far more than building a new stadium.
He said the aim was a clear pathway from school and community rugby through to the professional game, built on a genuine community partnership.
And he made a bigger claim for the model: “We believe this collaborative approach is unlike anything else in UK rugby and can become a blueprint for strengthening the game at every level.”
The board will meet quarterly, overseeing an annual programme covering participation, coaching and volunteering, support for schools and clubs, inclusion, health and wellbeing — and a player pathway running from grassroots rugby to the Ospreys.
The rebuilt St Helen’s — with its new seafront stand and near-7,000 capacity — took another visible step last month when Europe’s tallest sports floodlight came down after more than 60 years over the ground.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
ST HELEN’S: New seafront stand, fan zone and near-7,000 capacity — council sets out full plans for £7.6m rebuild
The full detail of the redevelopment the new board will help shape.ST HELEN’S: Europe’s tallest sports floodlight comes down after more than 60 years
The most visible moment yet in the historic ground’s transformation.OSPREYS: CEO Lance Bradley departs — months before the St Helen’s move he steered the club towards
#AlunWynJones #Ospreys #Rugby #SwanseaCouncil #SwanseaRFC #SwanseaRugbyCommunityBoard
The leadership change at the club as the move draws closer. -
ST HELEN’S: New seafront stand, fan zone and near-7,000 capacity — council sets out full plans for £7.6m rebuild
Swansea Council has set out the full detail of the £7.6 million St Helen’s redevelopment for the first time — a near-7,000 capacity stadium with a new seafront stand, a fan zone and a rebuilt community clubhouse.
The written answer also confirms the ground is being designed to meet the standards required for URC and European competition “in anticipation of the WRU‘s proposals to reduce the number of regions from four to three”.
The detail came in an answer from Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart at Thursday’s full council meeting, fleshing out the up-to-£5.1 million commitment the council made last year to secure the ground as the Ospreys‘ home.
Artist’s impression of the Osprey’s new St Helen’s stadium
(Image: Ospreys)The WRU’s decision on cutting a west Wales region has been delayed again while the governing body searches for a new chair.
The Ospreys signed Welsh rugby’s new Professional Rugby Agreement earlier this year — but the possibility of a cut remained on the table.
According to the written answer, a new 3G pitch will be repositioned closer to a newly-covered terrace, which the council says will improve the atmosphere and spectator experience.
Artist’s impression of new St Helen’s Ospreys stadium
(Image: Ospreys)The existing stand will be relocated to the Mumbles end of the ground, with a new 1,000-seat stand replacing it on the seafront side.
A new fan zone and hospitality offer at the Guildhall end is intended, the answer says, to create a focal point for matchdays and year-round activity.
In return for its investment, the council will take the freehold of the clubhouse and changing rooms on Bryn Road — which will then be incorporated into the lease issued to the Ospreys, giving the authority what it describes as a long-term interest in the site for future generations.
The council says its funding secures community use of the facility for around 90 per cent of available hours outside major fixtures.
An existing agreement with Swansea RFC — the All Whites — for continued use of the ground will be honoured, the answer states.
The rebuilt clubhouse will offer modern changing facilities, accessible amenities and flexible indoor spaces, open to clubs, schools and community groups, with the potential to host non-sporting events and functions.
The council says the venue will also support training and skills development in other sports, including football, athletics and disability sport, operating as a “bookable space” to help sustain it as a community facility.
The answer describes the scheme as a “modern, multi-use sports stadium and year-round community hub” with multigenerational use and academy-style programmes.
Cricket, played at the ground for a century and a half, is not part of the new St Helen’s. Swansea Cricket Club — a tenant since 1875 — left after the 2025 season, with the council supporting the club’s move to an upgraded facility at Sketty Lane.
The Sketty Lane site is itself the subject of wider plans for a £150m sport and health superhub, with facilities across the Swansea Bay Sports Park being brought under a single operator.
Work at the ground is already under way, with the famous floodlights — including what was long said to be Europe’s tallest, taken down last month after more than 60 years.
Whatever the WRU decides, the council’s answer states the redeveloped ground will become the home of both the Ospreys and Swansea RFC — “ensuring top flight rugby continues at a site that has been central to Welsh sport since 1876”.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Council to commit £5.1m to secure St Helen’s as Ospreys’ home — with region still facing looming WRU axe threat
How the council’s investment in the ground was first agreed.ST HELEN’S: Europe’s tallest sports floodlight comes down after more than 60 years
The 150ft landmark leaves the Swansea skyline as the rebuild clears the ground.WRU: Search for new chair begins — as decision on cutting a west Wales region is delayed again
#CllrRobStewart #construction #Ospreys #RobStewart #StHelensStadium #SwanseaCouncil #SwanseaCricketClub #SwanseaRFC #WRU
The latest on the governing body’s stalled call over the future of the regions. -
ST HELEN’S: Europe’s tallest sports floodlight comes down after more than 60 years
A floodlight long said to be the tallest of its kind at any sports ground in Europe is being taken down in Swansea today.
The 150ft column has stood over St Helen’s, beside the Cricketers crossroads in Brynmill, since 1964.
Its removal marks the final and most dramatic stage of the work to clear the ground’s old floodlights, after the other towers came down last week in footage captured by drone.
For more than six decades, the floodlight has been a fixture of the Swansea skyline — visible for miles, and from the seafront below.
Uplands Party councillor Peter May, who has lived in nearby Finsbury Terrace for 30 years, said he had mixed feelings about seeing it go.
“It will be missing from the view from my front garden, but is part of the new era for our beloved St Helen’s to continue as a sporting venue,” he said.
The floodlight’s loss closes another chapter for one of Welsh sport’s most storied grounds.
St Helen’s hosted the first home match in the history of the Wales rugby team, against England, back in 1882.
It was where New Zealand suffered their first defeat to Wales in 1924, and where Swansea beat the touring All Blacks in 1935 to become the first club side to do so.
The ground also has a place in cricket history. It was here, in 1968, that Sir Garfield Sobers struck the first six sixes in a single over in first-class cricket.
And in a quirk of local lore, a teenage Dylan Thomas won a mile race on the ground at his school sports day in 1928 — carrying the newspaper photograph of his victory for the rest of his life.
The floodlights themselves went up in 1964, part of efforts to keep evening fixtures and big matches at the venue.
Cllr May said the previous record-holders had been the 260ft pylons at Leeds United’s Elland Road ground, until they were taken down in 1993.
A crane works to remove a floodlight pylon at St Helen’s, with Swansea Bay and the beach beyond. (Image: Ospreys Rugby)Now the ground is being cleared for a new era. The turf has already been lifted and handed to grassroots clubs across the region, and with the floodlights gone the site is ready for a new playing surface.
The redevelopment plans, unveiled in May, centre on a new South Stand, a redeveloped West Stand and terrace, a fan zone and expanded hospitality.
The work is being carried out in phases, so the Ospreys can still play at St Helen’s throughout the coming season as construction goes on around them.
It marks a remarkable turnaround for a club that only months ago was fighting for survival, before Swansea Council committed £5.1m to secure the ground as a community stadium and the region’s home.
The Ospreys will leave the Swansea.com Stadium and return to St Helen’s after two decades away, playing their first season at the redeveloped ground in 2026/27.
Councillor Stuart Rice said work would continue to involve the local community in the plans.
“We are looking forward to continue engaging with Uplands and city-wide residents on the community aspect of the plans,” he said.
For now, though, eyes are on the Brynmill skyline — where a 150ft landmark that has watched over Swansea sport for two generations is finally coming down.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Floodlights come down in dramatic drone footage
The Ospreys captured the earlier towers being lifted away as the rebuild gathered pace.Ospreys unveil St Helen’s redevelopment plans
The new South Stand, West Stand and fan zone set to transform the historic ground.Council commits £5.1m to secure St Helen’s as Ospreys’ home
#Brynmill #Ospreys #StHelenSStadium #SwanseaCouncil #SwanseaRFC #Uplands
The investment that locked in the ground’s future as a community stadium. -
ST HELEN’S: Floodlights come down in dramatic drone footage as historic ground’s transformation gathers pace
The floodlights that have stood over St Helen’s for decades are being taken down — and the Ospreys have captured the moment from the air.
The region has released striking drone footage showing a crane lifting away the floodlight pylons at the historic Swansea ground, with the pitch below stripped completely bare of turf.
In the video, workers can be seen high up the floodlight structures, using blowtorches to cut them apart as they are dismantled section by section.
A crane works to remove a floodlight pylon at St Helen’s, with Swansea Bay and the beach beyond. (Image: Ospreys Rugby)The club said the lights were coming down this week as it prepares to lay the new pitch.
“The St Helen’s floodlights are coming down this week as we prepare the new pitch,” the Ospreys said, posting the message in both English and Welsh.
It is the latest visible stage in the transformation of St Helen’s into the Ospreys‘ new home — and follows the lifting of the ground’s famous turf earlier this month.
One of the St Helen’s floodlight pylons is lifted clear by crane, with Mumbles Head across the bay. (Image: Ospreys Rugby)The pitch at St Helen’s stripped back, with one of the old floodlight pylons still standing as redevelopment work gets under way. (Image: Ospreys Rugby)A floodlight pylon lies on the ground after being taken down at St Helen’s, beside the busy Mumbles Road. (Image: Ospreys Rugby)That historic soil was handed to grassroots rugby and sports clubs across the region, giving a piece of the old ground new life before the rebuild.
With the turf gone and now the floodlights, the site is being cleared for the new playing surface to be laid.
The redevelopment plans, unveiled in May, centre on a new South Stand and a redeveloped West Stand and terrace, along with a dedicated fan zone and expanded hospitality.
The work is being carried out in phases, so the club can still play at St Helen’s throughout the 2026/27 season while construction goes on around them.
It marks a remarkable turnaround for a club that, only months ago, was fighting for its very survival.
Swansea Council went to the High Court earlier this year to seek an injunction against a WRU restructuring it said would end the Ospreys, before the union performed a U-turn and the club’s future was secured.
The council has since committed its full £5.1m to redevelop St Helen’s as a community stadium and the Ospreys’ home.
St Helen’s is one of the most historic sports grounds in Wales, having hosted rugby and cricket at the highest level for well over a century — the stage for Gareth Edwards, Barry John and the great Wales sides of the 1970s.
The Ospreys will play their first season at the redeveloped ground in 2026/27.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Ospreys unveil St Helen’s redevelopment plans
The new South Stand, West Stand and fan zone set to transform the historic ground.St Helen’s famous turf given new life at grassroots clubs
The historic soil handed to clubs across the region as the rebuild began.Council commits £5.1m to secure St Helen’s as Ospreys’ home
#Ospreys #StHelenSStadium #SwanseaCouncil
The investment that locked in the ground’s future as a community stadium. -
ST HELEN’S: ‘The legacy remains in place’ — giant graffiti tribute to Swansea legend RFD appears on stadium wall
A giant graffiti tribute to one of Swansea‘s best-known public figures has appeared on the front wall of St Helen’s stadium.
The artwork celebrates Robert Francis-Davies — known across the city as RFD — who died last month after 43 years of service as a Morriston councillor.
His initials now stretch along the Mumbles Road wall in towering black and white letters, set between silver stars on a deep red background.
Ronnie Oner and colleague Ryan at work on the tribute to Robert Francis-Davies
(Image: Swansea Bay News)‘The Legacy Remains in Place’ — the stencilled message alongside the giant initials
(Image: Swansea Bay News)The tribute runs along the stadium’s front wall, ending with a message about RFD’s legacy
(Image: Swansea Bay News)Alongside them, two messages are stencilled in white: “The Legend” and “The Legacy Remains in Place”.
The artwork was created as a tribute to the man who served Swansea Council for more than four decades.
It was painted by Swansea firm Oner Signs, whose large-scale artwork marked the start of the Castle Square transformation earlier this year.
The Oner Signs van parked across from the tribute on Mumbles Road
(Image: Swansea Bay News)Ronnie Oner at work beside ‘The Legend’ — the tribute’s opening words
(Image: Swansea Bay News)Finishing touches to one of the silver stars that frame RFD’s initials
(Image: Swansea Bay News)Director Ronnie Oner, joined on the job by colleague Ryan, was putting the finishing touches to the piece on Wednesday — and for him the piece was personal.
“We’ve produced this piece for someone who’s contributed heavily to the local community — for the youngsters, for the skateparks, for the culture,” he said.
“I met him six years ago and became a close friend — he was an absolute legend.”
Spray work on the upper edge of the artwork as the piece nears completion
(Image: Swansea Bay News)Oner Signs director Ronnie Oner in front of the tribute to his close friend
(Image: Swansea Bay News)Ronnie Oner beside the towering letters — the wall is seen by thousands heading into the city every day
(Image: Swansea Bay News)Passing drivers beeped their support as the work went on beside one of the busiest roads into the city.
Whether the tribute itself survives the redevelopment is unclear, but Mr Oner said its spot could hardly be more prominent: “I’m not sure if this wall is coming down as part of the redevelopment, but the wall is very visible — it’s seen by people heading to the city centre.”
The artwork arrives as St Helen’s undergoes the biggest transformation in its history, with work under way on the Ospreys’ redevelopment of the ground ahead of the region’s move from the Swansea.com Stadium.
Inside the walls, diggers have already stripped the famous playing surface — with turf from the historic pitch given new life at grassroots clubs across the region.
Diggers on the former playing surface as the redevelopment of St Helen’s continues behind the tribute wall
(Image: Swansea Bay News)The redevelopment work under way inside St Helen’s, with the old terracing behind
(Image: Swansea Bay News)The famous turf is long gone as work continues inside the ground
(Image: Swansea Bay News)Swansea Council confirmed a £5.1m investment to secure the ground as the Ospreys’ new home earlier this month.
As cabinet member for investment, regeneration, tourism and events, Mr Francis-Davies was a prominent voice for the city’s sporting and cultural landmarks — credited with helping deliver the Swansea.com Stadium and the National Waterfront Museum.
Announcing his death in May, council leader Rob Stewart described him as “a true Swansea legend and an absolute force of nature” — words that now stand, quite literally, on the wall of one of the city’s most famous sporting grounds.
Cllr Robert Francis-Davies pictured at the Swansea.com Stadium. Picture: Swansea CouncilRelated stories from Swansea Bay News
SWANSEA: Cabinet member Robert Francis-Davies dies — tributes paid to ‘true Swansea legend’ after 43 years of service
The Morriston councillor served Swansea Council for 43 years and was a cabinet member at the time of his death.Work begins next week as Ospreys unveil St Helen’s redevelopment plans — marking the end of the most turbulent chapter in the club’s history
The region revealed its plans for the historic ground as building work got under way.Council to commit £5.1m to secure St Helen’s as Ospreys’ home — with region still facing looming WRU axe threat
Swansea Council reclassified its loan as an outright community investment in the ground’s future.ST HELEN’S: Famous turf from historic ground given new life at grassroots clubs across the region
Turf from the famous playing surface found new homes at grassroots clubs as the redevelopment began.This article was amended on 11 June to remove an incorrect statement that the artwork was commissioned by Mr Francis-Davies’s family.
#Art #CllrRobertFrancisDavies #featured #graffiti #mural #OnerSigns #Ospreys #StHelensStadium #SwanseaCouncil #tribute -
ST HELEN’S: Famous turf from historic ground given new life at grassroots clubs across the region
The famous turf at St Helen’s is being given a new lease of life at grassroots clubs across south-west Wales.
As the historic Swansea ground is dug up for redevelopment, the soil steeped in more than a century of sporting history is being lifted and delivered to local club grounds.
The Ospreys said they were working with Swansea Council to share the turf with clubs around the region.
“The turf from St Helen’s is helping clubs across our community,” the region said, as the work to lift the pitch began.
It is a fitting send-off for one of Welsh rugby’s most storied grounds. The home of Swansea RFC since 1873, St Helen’s staged the first home international in Welsh rugby history in 1882.
It was also where, in September 1935, Swansea became the first club side ever to beat the touring All Blacks, running out 11–3 winners.
The handover marks the physical start of a project that will transform the ageing ground into a modern home for the Ospreys.
The stripped pitch at St Helen’s, with the Trade Centre Wales stand and Swansea Bay beyond. Image: Ospreys / FacebookWork began on the redevelopment last month, with the Ospreys unveiling plans for a phased transformation including a new South Stand, a redeveloped West Stand and a fan zone.
The club described it as the end of the most turbulent chapter in its history, after a period of uncertainty that at one stage threatened its very existence.
The redevelopment is being backed by significant public money.
Swansea Council agreed to commit its full £5.1m to the scheme, switching the funding from a loan to an outright investment to secure the ground as a community stadium and the Ospreys’ home.
The pictures from the site show diggers and trucks at work on the stripped pitch, with the sea and the Trade Centre Wales stand framing the familiar setting.
For the grassroots clubs receiving it, a piece of one of Welsh sport’s most storied grounds will now be part of their own pitches.
The gesture comes at an otherwise anxious time for the region.
The Ospreys recently signed Welsh rugby’s new Professional Rugby Agreement, ending months of uncertainty — but the deal keeps them tied to a timetable that could still see Welsh rugby cut from four professional regions to three.
For now, though, the focus is on a quieter legacy — the famous St Helen’s turf taking root at clubs across the area.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Work begins as Ospreys unveil St Helen’s redevelopment plans
A phased transformation including a new South Stand, redeveloped West Stand and fan zone.Council to commit £5.1m to secure St Helen’s as Ospreys’ home
The funding switches from a loan to an outright investment in the ground.WRU: Ospreys sign new professional rugby deal — but threat of cut to three regions still looms
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The region’s future remains uncertain despite signing the new agreement. -
Council to commit £5.1m to secure St Helen’s as Ospreys’ home — with region still facing looming WRU axe threat
Swansea Council is set to commit its full £5.1m to the redevelopment of St Helen’s as a community stadium and the home of the Ospreys — with the region’s long-term future still hanging on the outcome of the Welsh Rugby Union’s plan to cut from four professional teams to three.
A report going before the council’s cabinet on June 11 asks members to approve investing the money to transform the historic ground into a year-round, community-first sports facility that can also host top-flight rugby.
According to the report, the proposals would create a venue capable of meeting the standards of the United Rugby Championship and European competition, while reserving an estimated 90% of its use for the wider community.
Crucially, the money would no longer be a loan. The report explains that when the funding was first agreed it was to be recovered over the lifetime of a long lease, but it now proposes committing the £5.1m as an outright “community investment” in the ground.
The report says the Ospreys would contribute a further £2.5m towards the works — taking the combined total to around £7.6m — and would take a 50-year lease and full responsibility for matchday operations.
The investment comes at a precarious moment for the region in Swansea, which spent much of the past year fighting for its survival — and is not yet in the clear.
St Helen’s, with the Swansea Cricket & Football Club stand and the ageing terraces the council says are in need of investment.A long road to this point
The council first set out the case for investing in St Helen’s in 2024. In July that year, the ground was named as the Ospreys’ chosen new home, and that December cabinet agreed in principle to invest in the redevelopment.
According to the report, that December 2024 decision committed a £5.1m budget, to be repaid over the course of a 50-year lease, subject to conditions around financial due diligence and the WRU granting the Ospreys a new Professional Rugby Agreement.
The Ospreys submitted a planning application for the stadium in June 2025, and earlier this year the council shifted its approach — agreeing in March to fund the works needed for community use, with the Ospreys paying for the additional work required to bring the ground up to URC standard.
The report also reveals the council initiated legal action against the Welsh Rugby Union during this period, which it says is currently stayed.
Following financial due diligence and the agreement of the necessary licences, work began on the redevelopment at the end of last month, with the first phase due to be completed by the autumn, in time for the new season in October.
The mural on the St Helen’s perimeter wall celebrating Swansea’s sporting history, including the club’s famous win over the southern hemisphere’s “Big Three.”What the redevelopment involves
Under the plans set out in the report, the scheme centres on a new 4G artificial pitch, repositioned closer to a newly-covered terrace to improve the atmosphere for spectators.
The report says the existing stand would be relocated to the Mumbles end of the ground, with a new stand of close to 2,000 seats built in its place on the seafront side. A new fan zone and hospitality area at the Guildhall end would create a focal point on matchdays.
Under the latest proposals, the freehold of the St Helen’s clubhouse — currently owned by Swansea RFC — would transfer to the council as part of the deal.
The report describes the clubhouse as a critical part of delivering the wider community benefit, providing changing facilities, accessible amenities and flexible indoor space, and paving the way for a community and wellbeing hub. It says opportunities already identified include provision for the Jac Lewis Foundation and initiatives to help older residents develop digital skills.
St Helen’s would remain the home of Swansea RFC, and would become the home of the Ospreys, at a ground that has been central to Welsh sport since 1876.
The report says an externally commissioned economic impact assessment has put the value of the Ospreys being based at St Helen’s at at least £15m a year, and that the investment also helps unlock wider City Deal money that could not be drawn down without a clear plan.
The Swansea Cricket & Football Club stand at St Helen’s, which would be transformed under the £5.1m plan.The WRU shadow over it all
The investment is being made against a backdrop of deep uncertainty over the future shape of professional rugby in Wales.
In October last year, the WRU confirmed plans to cut the number of professional men’s regions from four to three by 2028, with only one licence to be based in west Wales — leaving one of the region’s two West Wales sides facing the axe.
The decision triggered a sustained campaign in Swansea, with the council leader tabling an emergency motion against the cut and the city’s politicians repeatedly demanding the plan be dropped.
The Ospreys appeared to win a reprieve in April, when a bid by the region’s owners to buy Cardiff collapsed and the WRU offered the Ospreys and Scarlets a lifeline in the form of new Professional Rugby Agreements — a moment hailed by supporters and politicians as a major victory.
But the threat has not gone away. The report notes that while the new agreement runs until 2030, it carries a break clause at the end of the 2027/28 season, linked directly to the WRU’s continuing intention to reduce to three teams.
The Ospreys have now signed the new agreement, joining Cardiff and the Dragons — though it has been reported that the WRU is preparing to serve notice that would re-open the path to three teams, with a tender process for the future licences a possibility if no agreement is reached.
It is against that uncertainty that the council is making its case. The report argues that developing St Helen’s into a compliant, high-quality venue gives the Ospreys “the best opportunity” of succeeding when the WRU allocates its future regional licences.
As a safeguard on the public money, the report says that if the Ospreys were to lose their licence and drop out of the top tier, the council could break the lease, with the stadium and all its redeveloped facilities — including the clubhouse — reverting to the council.
The report argues the business case for the investment stands regardless of the Ospreys’ fate, describing St Helen’s as a “first-class community asset” that would fill a gap in the city’s sporting infrastructure and prevent the further deterioration of an ageing ground.
Cabinet will consider the proposals on June 11.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Work begins as Ospreys unveil St Helen’s redevelopment plans
The phased transformation of the ground that began at the end of last month.‘A massive victory’ as Ospreys and Scarlets handed lifeline in Welsh rugby U-turn
The April reprieve — though warnings sounded that the three-club threat had not gone away.Scarlets and Ospreys face fight for survival as WRU confirms three-club model
How the WRU’s plan to cut to three regions left one West Wales side facing the axe.Council leader tables emergency motion over Ospreys future
#featured #Guildhall #JacLewisFoundation #Ospreys #ProfessionalRugbyAgreement #StHelenSStadium #StHelens #SwanseaBayCityDeal #SwanseaCouncil #SwanseaRFC #UnitedRugbyChampionship #WRU
Swansea’s cross-party stand against the WRU’s plan to cut a region.