#swanseacouncil — Public Fediverse posts

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

Festive spirit set to shine as Together at Christmas returns to Brangwyn Hall
What last year’s event offered, and how people got there.

Date set for return of Swansea’s ‘Together at Christmas’ event
The 2025 date announcement.

More Together at Christmas stories

SWANSEA FERRY: “Not a council proposal”, leader says, as councillors ask what checks were made on the £25,000 report behind it

The fast ferry from Swansea to south-west England is “not a council proposal”, council leader Rob Stewart has told councillors, as opposition members ask what checks were made on the report behind it.

His written answers, published ahead of full council on 1 October, say the detailed design of the crossing “has not yet been finalised and remains under active development”.

The focus now, he says, is “proof of concept work”, developing the “technical, commercial and delivery model” and talking to “key stakeholders and funding bodies”.

Ocean Prime, the company behind the plan, has “reached out to a range of prospective partners across south Wales and West of England”, according to his answer.

The report behind the plan promised something more concrete: a small working prototype this year, and a first vessel in service by 2030.

“Does the council remain confident?” Councillors question the £24,999.95 report

Cllrs Matthew Bailey and Brigitte Rowlands asked what due diligence the council carried out before accepting and publishing the report. It was paid for with £24,999.95 of UK Shared Prosperity Fund money through the council, and it carries a foreword by the leader.

They said “a number of significant factual and technical questions” had been raised since it was published. They asked whether the council “remains confident in the report’s accuracy”, and how it would check the findings independently.

Cllr Stewart’s reply says the grant was made “in line with the criteria of the fund”, and that the report “does not commit the Council to any future investment or delivery decisions”.

Any detailed proposals would go through the council’s normal governance, he said, including “technical, financial, legal and commercial due diligence and independent assessment where required”. His answer does not say whether the council still stands by the report’s figures.

Those figures have been questioned before. On the report’s own numbers, its carbon saving works out at around a hundredth of the figure it claims.

It also named science fiction author Isaac Asimov, who died in 1992, as a supporter of a Minehead pier project. Ocean Prime did not respond when Swansea Bay News put those points to it in July.

From “an exciting project” to “not a council proposal”

It is the clearest line yet between the council and a crossing its leader has championed. In 2022, Cllr Stewart announced plans for a hydrogen ferry linking Swansea with Devon and Cornwall, calling it “an exciting project”.

In March this year, he said the consultation findings gave the council “confidence to move into the next stage of work”. His foreword to the report in July called the public response “remarkable”.

He has drawn a line before. At the July council meeting he stressed that the ferry was not a council-operated scheme, but one of many the council was supporting.

His latest answer still leans on the consultation. He says the research “commissioned on behalf of Swansea Council” found “strong public support”, with more than 4,300 responses and almost 98% in favour. The survey ran through the project’s own website.

“This venture is not a council proposal,” he said, “but clearly the council is committed to exploring transport solutions that could benefit the city and region economically.”

Where it docks, who pays and who sails it: still unanswered

Liberal Democrat group leader Chris Holley, who chairs the scrutiny panel, said in July he would call the report in, with Ocean Prime invited to answer for it. Almost three months on, that session has yet to take place.

He is one of the four councillors who asked for this latest update. The leader’s answer does not say where in the south west a ferry would berth, or who would fund a prototype.

When five of the biggest ferry operators in British and Irish waters were asked in July, none said it was considering a Swansea service. Associated British Ports said it would keep working with any interested parties.

Councillors can put follow-up questions to the leader at full council, at the Guildhall at 5pm on Thursday 1 October.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

SWANSEA FERRY: Report promising 800,000 visitors and £600m heads for scrutiny, as its own numbers face questions
The report in full, and the figures that don’t add up.

SWANSEA FERRY: Who pays, where does it dock, and how does it hit 60 knots?
The questions councillors want answered at scrutiny.

SWANSEA FERRY: The catamaran that sat in Swansea docks and never sailed
The last fast ferry promised across this water.

More from our Swansea Ferry series

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”.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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
Every story from the city’s best-known street.

LITTER: You could be fined for rubbish thrown from your car even if you weren’t in it, and fly-tippers could face £5,000

If a burger box flies out of your car window on the M4 and a council officer sees it, you could be the one who pays: whether you threw it, your passenger did, or you were not in the car at all. That is the change the Welsh Government is asking about, and it wants answers by 14 October.

The same consultation asks whether the maximum on-the-spot fine for fly-tipping should rise from £400 to £5,000, and whether the fine for handing your rubbish to an unlicensed man with a van should go from £300 to £400.

Why councils say their hands are tied

Throwing litter from a car is already a crime, with a fine of up to £2,500 in court. The problem, the government’s own paper says, is proving who did it: with two or more people in a moving car an officer often cannot tell, and the registered keeper does not have to say.

England already fines the keeper directly and Scotland is about to, as a civil penalty rather than a criminal one, so no court and no record. The paper admits Wales consulted on doing the same in 2017, found “strong support”, and then dropped the Bill that would have brought it in.

Llyr Gruffydd, the cabinet minister for rural resilience and sustainability, said: “It’s often impossible to prove who in a car threw litter out, so councils’ hands are tied even when they know it’s happened.”

Keep Wales Tidy surveys last year, quoted in the paper, found litter on nearly every main road in Wales: sweet wrappers on 81% of roads surveyed, drinks containers on 72% and fast-food packaging on 67%.

6,915 dumps, 103 fines

Councils in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire recorded 6,915 fly-tipping incidents in 2024/25, according to Welsh Government figures, and issued 103 fixed penalty notices between them. That is one fine for every 67 dumps.

Swansea’s 2,860 incidents were up 15% on the year and 61% on four years ago, and 2,308 of them were on the roadside. The council issued 25 fixed penalties and, for the second year running, recorded no prosecutions in the official statistics; in March it told councillors it had dealt with 2,579 incidents and brought five prosecutions, a different count of the same year.

Neath Port Talbot’s 884 incidents were up 40% on 633 the year before, though still below the 1,102 of 2021/22. It issued 39 fixed penalties and prosecuted twice, and it is the council that crushes fly-tippers’ vans. In July a Morriston man who admitted dumping oil-covered car parts along two miles of road between Crynant and Cilfrew was fined £200, the same figure as the standard fixed penalty, plus costs.

Carmarthenshire recorded 3,171 incidents, up 3% but well down from 4,803 four years ago, and prosecuted nine people, all of whom were fined, the third highest tally in Wales. Its fixed penalties fell from 149 to 39 in a year. Its new bin rulebook, signed off on Monday, sets out the ladder of letter, warden, notice and fine before anyone reaches court.

What a £5,000 fine would mean

Councils have told the government the £400 ceiling is no longer a deterrent, and in some cases costs less than getting rid of the rubbish legally. English councils can already fine up to £5,000, and Welsh councils have said the gap invites people to cross the border to dump. The £200 default would stay, the ceiling would rise, and councils would not have to use it.

Seven in ten fly-tips in Wales are household waste, black bags and the like, and in Swansea it is 72%. That is why the duty-of-care fine is going up too: if you pay someone to take your rubbish away and it ends up in a lane, the law says it is your problem.

Also in the paper

The proposals sit inside a wider white paper that would give ministers a legal duty to “rural proof” their policies. It names Carmarthenshire as one of nine rural councils in Wales; Swansea and Neath Port Talbot are not on the list. There are also tougher powers on illegal tree felling and civil fines for Natural Resources Wales to use.

The government says no decision has been made and no Bill has been drafted; it is asking for views and evidence first. The consultation is open until 14 October on the Welsh Government website.

“No-one likes litter,” Mr Gruffydd said. “Roadside rubbish makes an area unsightly, impacts our local economies and communities, and poses risks to the environment and to wildlife. I’d encourage everyone to give us their views and help us clean up our roadsides.”

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Neath Port Talbot crushes fly-tippers’ vehicles as crackdown intensifies
The council seizing and destroying vans linked to illegal dumping.

FLY-TIPPING: Morriston man must pay more than £1,400 after waste strewn along two miles of Dulais Valley road
A £200 fine for oil-covered car parts along a country road.

STICKER SHOCK: Wrong bag, wrong day, and the new Carmarthenshire bin rules that can end in court
Letter, warden, notice, fine: the county’s enforcement ladder.

Fly-tipping
Every prosecution and crackdown across south west Wales.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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
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

Empty Chinese restaurant that’s blighted Swansea street for years to be transformed https://www.diningandcooking.com/restaurants/30508/ #ChineseRestaurant #ChineseRestaurants #Restaurants #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil

Empty Chinese restaurant that’s blighted Swansea street for years to be transformed https://www.diningandcooking.com/restaurants/30508/ #ChineseRestaurant #ChineseRestaurants #Restaurants #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil

SWANSEA: St David’s car park all but gone as diggers chew through the last of the decks

The St David’s car park is almost gone.

Photographs taken from above the site on Monday morning show the multi-storey reduced to a field of crushed concrete and brick, with at least four excavators working across it.

The last of the structure is at the St David’s Place end, where a long-reach demolition machine was tearing into what remains of the decks.

A painted “lock it” car-security sign was still on an inside wall as the jaws worked alongside it.

When the signs came down at the start of the month, crews were still stripping the building floor by floor.

Now the rest of the site is flat. Crushed concrete covers the ground where the upper decks stood, and steel reinforcing bar pulled from it is piling up in skips.

Hoardings around the site carry the names of Cardiff Demolition Co Ltd and Andrew Scott Ltd, the firm that completed the Copr Bay North car park next door after its original contractor went into administration.

Oystermouth Road drivers can now see across the site to St David’s Church

For four decades, drivers heading into the city centre along Oystermouth Road were met by a red-brick wall of parking decks.

Now there is open ground behind the hoardings, with St David’s Church and the flats beyond it in full view from the road.

The car park closed for good on 13 July, the same morning Copr Bay North opened its 628 spaces next door, with St David’s season ticket holders moved across.

Its signs, including the little bishop in a mitre who welcomed drivers into town, were taken down before demolition began and handed to Swansea Museum for safekeeping, the council says.

What Porth Copr will bring to the St David’s site

The cleared ground becomes part of Porth Copr, the council’s regeneration scheme with Urban Splash. The council says it will bring new office, learning and commercial space to the city centre, with new public spaces around St David’s Church.

Council leader Cllr Rob Stewart called the demolition “another visible sign of progress” when work began.

“This is a significant site in the heart of Swansea and its transformation will help support investment, jobs and city centre activity for years to come,” he said.

In July he promised further announcements “in the coming weeks” about plans for the former St David’s Shopping Centre site.

No start date has been announced for the main build. Surveys and ground investigations have been carried out ahead of it, the council says.

The car park outlived most of the St David’s Shopping Centre it was built to serve by five years, and the Llys Dewi Sant flats next door by four.

One of the last surviving pieces of the old shopping centre still stands beside the site. High on its red-brick wall is the same little bishop in a mitre, with “St David” in white letters beside him.

The bishop who greeted drivers from the car park is safe in Swansea Museum. His twin is still up on the wall next door, looking over the rubble.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

SWANSEA: The car park is coming down, but the saint who welcomed you into town is saved for the museum
How the bishop signs went to Swansea Museum before the diggers moved in.

COPR BAY: Opening day named for long-delayed car park, and a city centre car park closing the same day
The July announcement that sealed St David’s fate.

Porth Copr
Every story on the plans for the former St David’s site.

GOWERTON: Flood regulator says 216-home site ‘did not fully comply’ with flood guidance, then agrees flooding can be left out of the study

Natural Resources Wales has told planning inspectors that the site of 216 proposed homes at Fairwood Terrace “did not fully comply” with national flood guidance. It has also told them flooding can be left out of the developer’s environmental study.

The regulator’s letter, dated 15 September, is its reply to Persimmon’s request to limit that study to a single topic: the nutrients the homes would send towards the Burry Inlet.

It was sent two days before Swansea Council’s own reply, which asked for new wildlife surveys and said nothing on traffic.

What NRW told inspectors about flood risk at Fairwood Terrace

NRW says its advice on the original planning application was based on the Welsh Government’s flood guidance for planners as it stood at the time, the July 2004 version of the document known as TAN 15.

“The site did not fully comply with TAN15 (July 2004),” the letter says. “However, we accept that there will be no likely significant effects in relation to flood risk and it can be screened out of the ES.” The ES is the environmental statement Persimmon must write before its appeal can be decided.

The regulator takes the same view on contamination. It says there have been “no material changes” since a site investigation in March 2022, and that any risks “will be controlled through the relevant planning conditions”.

It also says the scheme would not affect the purposes of the Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and that pollution during building work is covered by Persimmon’s construction management plan.

On nutrients, NRW agrees they must be studied and accepts the housebuilder’s proposed approach, provided the work “adequately addresses the requirements” of both the environmental statement and the separate habitats assessment.

A second official body questions the age of the wildlife surveys

On wildlife, NRW is less settled. It was satisfied with the ecological proposals in June 2024, but says the information “may now be considered old enough to require updating”.

“Updated ecology surveys would need to demonstrate that previously agreed mitigation was still valid,” it says. It leaves inspectors to decide whether that work sits inside the environmental statement or in a separate report.

That echoes the council’s ecology officer, who pointed out this week that most of the surveys date from 2015 to 2020, and asked for new bat, dormouse and otter surveys.

Campaigners’ 38-page case: Flood Zone 3, a missing spine road and the Trafle Mill bridge

Save Gowerton from Gridlock has filed a 38-page response with 28 appendices, asking inspectors to require nine further chapters, including transport, flood risk, air quality, ground contamination and GP capacity.

On flooding, the group says a significant part of the site now falls within River Flood Zone 3, the high-risk category, on the current Flood Map for Planning, and that NRW’s advice rests on a 22-year-old framework. It accepts the appeal may technically fall under transitional rules. NRW’s letter does not mention the current flood map.

On traffic, it says the spine road that Swansea’s development plan treats as essential to the wider Waunarlwydd and Fforestfach allocation is no longer proposed by any of the developers involved, leaving Victoria Road to take the traffic. It puts the number of homes in the planning pipeline across the corridor at 3,196.

It also wants a standalone risk assessment for the Trafle Mill railway bridge, saying April’s strike was the 35th on record and that Persimmon’s proposed pedestrian crossing would sit where debris fell. We reported that strike, and another on 7 August, when a lorry’s roof was torn open and trains were halted.

The group’s submission also points to PFOS, a so-called forever chemical, which it says NRW has recorded in the Afon Llan beside the site, downstream of the former 3M factory in Gorseinon.

Carl Jones, speaking for the group, said: “We are simply asking that the Inspectorate exercises its statutory powers to ensure the developer’s final Environmental Statement reflects the interconnected realities of our local highway capacity, drainage systems, and public health parameters, rather than an incomplete baseline.”

Inspectors can only publish a non-binding view on what the study should cover. We have not yet seen the replies from Dŵr Cymru, Network Rail, Transport for Wales or the Welsh Government’s transport directorate.

The Fairwood Terrace story so far

GOWERTON: Bats, dormice and otters put back on the table for 216 homes
The council’s reply: new wildlife surveys wanted, and silence from highways.

GOWERTON: Developer wants traffic concerns omitted from environmental study
The request all of these replies respond to, and the ten topics Persimmon wants dropped.

GOWERTON: Lorry roof peeled open as notorious Trafle Mill bridge claims another victim
August’s strike at the bridge that guards Fairwood Terrace.

Every Fairwood Terrace story
The refusal, the appeal and the environmental ruling, in order.

Second car driven along Gower coast path at Mumbles

Walkers heading out along the Gower coast path on Saturday morning found a brand new Kia jammed across…
#EuropeSays #Britain #Europe #EU #UK #CllrWillThomas #featured #GowerCoastPath #Limeslade #Mumbles #Rotherslade #SwanseaCouncil #UnitedKingdom #WalesCoastPath
https://www.europesays.com/britain/122980/

https://www.europesays.com/britain/122980/ Second car driven along Gower coast path at Mumbles #CllrWillThomas #featured #GowerCoastPath #Limeslade #Mumbles #Rotherslade #SwanseaCouncil #UK #UnitedKingdom #WalesCoastPath

Pantygwydr Swansea HMO plan grows to 13 bedrooms

The tables could come out of the Pantygwydr, and 13 bedrooms could go in. A full planning application is now with Swansea Council to turn the corner restaurant on Oxford St…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Frenchrestaurants #francais #france #French #FrenchRestaurants #HMO #OxfordStreet #Pantygwydr #planningapplication #Restaurants #Sandfields #SwanseaCouncil
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2783200/pantygwydr-swansea-hmo-plan-grows-to-13-bedrooms/

Pantygwydr Swansea HMO plan grows to 13 bedrooms

The tables could come out of the Pantygwydr, and 13 bedrooms could go in. A full planning application is now with Swansea Council to turn the corner restaurant on Oxford St…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Frenchrestaurants #francais #france #French #FrenchRestaurants #HMO #OxfordStreet #Pantygwydr #planningapplication #Restaurants #Sandfields #SwanseaCouncil
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2783200/pantygwydr-swansea-hmo-plan-grows-to-13-bedrooms/

Pantygwydr Swansea HMO plan grows to 13 bedrooms

The tables could come out of the Pantygwydr, and 13 bedrooms could go in. A full planning application is now with Swansea Council to turn the corner restaurant on Oxford St…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Frenchrestaurants #francais #france #French #FrenchRestaurants #HMO #OxfordStreet #Pantygwydr #planningapplication #Restaurants #Sandfields #SwanseaCouncil
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2783200/pantygwydr-swansea-hmo-plan-grows-to-13-bedrooms/

Pantygwydr Swansea HMO plan grows to 13 bedrooms

The tables could come out of the Pantygwydr, and 13 bedrooms could go in. A full planning application is now with Swansea Council to turn the corner restaurant on Oxford St…
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Pantygwydr Swansea HMO plan grows to 13 bedrooms https://www.diningandcooking.com/2783200/pantygwydr-swansea-hmo-plan-grows-to-13-bedrooms/ #francais #france #French #FrenchRestaurants #HMO #OxfordStreet #Pantygwydr #PlanningApplication #Restaurants #Sandfields #SwanseaCouncil

Pantygwydr Swansea HMO plan grows to 13 bedrooms https://www.diningandcooking.com/2783200/pantygwydr-swansea-hmo-plan-grows-to-13-bedrooms/ #francais #france #French #FrenchRestaurants #HMO #OxfordStreet #Pantygwydr #PlanningApplication #Restaurants #Sandfields #SwanseaCouncil

Pantygwydr Swansea HMO plan grows to 13 bedrooms https://www.diningandcooking.com/2783200/pantygwydr-swansea-hmo-plan-grows-to-13-bedrooms/ #francais #france #French #FrenchRestaurants #HMO #OxfordStreet #Pantygwydr #PlanningApplication #Restaurants #Sandfields #SwanseaCouncil

Disposable barbecue sales banned across Britain over wildfire risk

Disposable barbecues have been banned from sale across Great Britain, a day after Swansea Council urged people to…
#EuropeSays #Britain #Europe #EU #AndyBurnham #Drought #RhunapIorwerthMS #SwanseaCouncil #ukgovernment #WelshGovernment #wildfire
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https://www.europesays.com/britain/103588/ Disposable barbecue sales banned across Britain over wildfire risk #AndyBurnham #Britain #Drought #RhunApIorwerthMS #SwanseaCouncil #UkGovernment #WelshGovernment #wildfire

Garden Village Gorseinon: 141 affordable homes bought by council https://www.allforgardening.com/1912200/garden-village-gorseinon-141-affordable-homes-bought-by-council/ #AffordableHomes #AffordableHousing #CouncilHouses #garden #GardenVillage #Gorseinon #Penllergaer #PersimmonHomes #SocialHousing #SwanseaCouncil

Garden Village Gorseinon: 141 affordable homes bought by council https://www.allforgardening.com/1912200/garden-village-gorseinon-141-affordable-homes-bought-by-council/ #AffordableHomes #AffordableHousing #CouncilHouses #garden #GardenVillage #Gorseinon #Penllergaer #PersimmonHomes #SocialHousing #SwanseaCouncil

SWANSEA: Free buckets and spades on the prom as beach toy library restocked for summer

Families heading to Swansea beach this summer can borrow buckets, spades and other toys for free, with the seafront toy library restocked for the school holidays.

The wooden container sits on the promenade opposite The Secret’s new fish and chip kiosk. Take what you need, use it on the sand, drop it back before you head home.

There is no cost, no booking and nothing to sign.

The library has been topped up with new toys donated by The Secret, the bar and kitchen that has hosted the scheme since it started.

It has been running since August 2024, when the council teamed up with the venue to get families onto the sand without the boot full of plastic.

The container itself was decorated by children who attended the free Play Day Celebration at the National Waterfront Museum that summer, an event that drew around 3,000 youngsters.

Cabinet member for development Andrew Williams said: “Our beach toy library is a fantastic example of the simple ideas that can make a big difference.”

“It helps families enjoy everything Swansea Bay has to offer without extra cost, while also promoting sustainability and community spirit,” he said. “We’re very grateful to The Secret for their support in helping the scheme grow.”

When the library opened in August 2024, Ryan Hole of The Secret said: “At the Secret, supporting our local community is one of our key principles. We’re really grateful for the support we receive from the Swansea people, especially during the summer holidays where lots use the beach.”

“It’s a pleasure to be able to provide the toys to allow families to use the beautiful Swansea Bay,” he added.

Launching the scheme in August 2024, Swansea Council cabinet member Hayley Gwilliam said: “Going to the beach can be an economical day out, especially important for families on a budget, but when the weather is good what can beat time spent playing on the sand?”

“The Beach Library means that those that don’t have, or forget, their buckets and spades or bats and balls, can still enjoy their day,” she said.

Anyone with spare beach toys at home can add to the stock by putting them in the collection box on the prom.

The council asks only that toys are intact and undamaged, and that borrowers return what they take.

The scheme is one of a run of low-cost options the council points families towards over the summer holidays.

Swansea Bay’s sands stretch five miles from the marina to Mumbles, with the prom running the length of it.

The toy library is open every day of the year.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Swansea beach library to loan toys to families
How the scheme started in August 2024, with a container decorated by local children.

SWANSEA: Council takes over NCP car parks with all-day parking cut to £5

Swansea Council has taken over the running of two city centre car parks abandoned by collapsed operator NCP, cutting all-day parking at both to £5.

NCP stopped operating the Kingsway and Orchard Street sites on Friday. The council’s red signs and £5-a-day tariff boards were going up at both this week, with the old NCP branding still in place above the entrances and its outline showing on the wall at Orchard Street where a sign had been stripped off.

Between them the two sites hold 840 spaces — 512 at Orchard Street and 328 at Kingsway — a significant slice of the city centre’s parking.

Parking at both now costs £1 an hour or £5 for the day, matching the council’s other city centre car parks, with Sundays £2 all day. Existing permit holders keep their spaces.

The company’s third Swansea site, City Gates on York Street, stays with NCP and is not part of the council’s plans. It has 251 spaces.

Cabinet member Andrew Stevens said the prospect of the car parks closing had been a concern when the council was given the news.

“Fortunately, the council own the freehold for both the Kingsway and Orchard Street sites,” he said. “This has given us the opportunity to take over the running of both sites and keep them both running without any disruption for car park users.”

He said the council would spend the next few months upgrading payment equipment and other features to bring the two sites up to the standard of its other car parks.

Cllr Stevens said Swansea now had “some of the cheapest parking fees anywhere in the country”.

The rescue ends four months of uncertainty for two of the city’s busiest car parks. NCP called in administrators from PwC in March after running out of cash, putting all its Swansea sites under review.

The company, which ran around 340 car parks and employed more than 680 people, never recovered from the collapse in commuting after the pandemic, while long leases kept its costs high.

PwC closed 29 car parks across England and Northern Ireland in the months that followed — none of them in Wales — while telling drivers the remaining sites were trading as normal.

The 840 spaces are a real addition to the council’s stock. When the 628-space Copr Bay North multi-storey opened this month, the 375-space St David’s car park shut the same day for demolition, leaving a net gain of just over 250 spaces.

Drivers with outstanding NCP fines should note that administration does not wipe them: the company still legally exists, and unpaid tickets can still be enforced.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

NCP enters administration putting key Swansea car parks at risk
How the collapse put Kingsway, Orchard Street and City Gates under a cloud in March.

SWANSEA: Don’t ignore that NCP parking fine
Why administration doesn’t wipe out fines — and what the creditors’ meeting meant for Swansea.

COPR BAY: Opening day named for long-delayed car park
628 new spaces — and the 375-space car park that closed the same day.

SWANSEA: Wider seats and a new cooling system for the Grand this summer

Theatregoers at Swansea Grand Theatre will find wider seats with more legroom when the autumn season opens, the council has announced.

A new cooling system is also being installed, which the council says will make the Victorian auditorium more comfortable for audiences and performers in warm weather — the sort of weather Swansea is having right now.

New handrails are going into the Upper Circle, the council said, making the climb to the cheaper seats easier.

Further improvements to the Grand Circle will take place in 2028, the council have said.

It lands on a venue that is filling up. The council says more than 84,000 people have been through the doors since January.

There is plenty booked to sit in those seats for: Al Murray and Leo Sayer both play the Grand this autumn, and West End hit Operation Mincemeat arrives before Christmas.

Then comes Snow White, with Owain Wyn Evans, Rebecca Keatley and Suzanne Shaw — and Kev Johns returning as the Dame in the Mirror, a specially created role after the stroke that kept him off the stage this year.

The year’s biggest booking so far was Welsh National Theatre’s Our Town, the company’s first production, starring Michael Sheen.

The theatre’s resident company delivered the other landmark. Grand Ambition’s Physical Education, set in a sixth-form boys’ changing room and drawing on life for young men in the city, took five-star reviews from The Guardian and The Stage.

Our own reviewer called the cast “quite simply phenomenal”, in a play studded with Wind Street and Langland references that could only have come from Swansea.

Written by Gorseinon writer Jonathan Houlston and directed by Richard Mylan, it ran in the theatre’s Arts Wing this month.

Last winter’s pantomime, Aladdin, has since been named Event of the Year at the Swansea Life Awards.

Councillor Elliot King, cabinet member for culture, human rights and equalities, said: “It’s been a fantastic year for Swansea Grand Theatre.”

He said there was “so much to celebrate”, pointing to “the critical acclaim surrounding Our Town”, the Swansea Life Award for Aladdin, and “investing in improvements for our audiences”.

“We are incredibly grateful to our loyal patrons, partners and staff who continue to support the theatre,” he said.

Cllr King added that the theatre “plays such an important role in delivering the council’s priorities, making Swansea a destination of choice for arts, culture and entertainment”.

The council has timed the announcement to the Grand’s 129th birthday. The theatre opened in 1897 and is one of the few Victorian theatres in Wales still in full-time use.

The Grand is not the only theatre in the region getting attention. Along the coast, Port Talbot’s Princess Royal Theatre is being rebuilt in an £18m project and will reopen this autumn under a new name — Yr Aelwyd, the Welsh for The Hearth.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

THEATRE REVIEW: ‘Quite simply phenomenal’ — Physical Education lays bare life for Swansea’s teenage boys at the Grand
Five-star reviews for Grand Ambition’s home-grown hit.

SWANSEA: ‘Swansea still gets to see me in a dress this year’ — Kev Johns returns to Grand panto as the Dame in the Mirror
How Kev keeps his place in Snow White this Christmas.

THEATRE INTERVIEW: Gorseinon writer Jonathan Houlston on Physical Education and finding his voice
The writer behind the five-star play.

REVIEW: Our Town, Swansea Grand Theatre
Michael Sheen and Welsh National Theatre on opening night.

KILVEY HILL: Fire breaks out above St Thomas homes as smoke drifts across Swansea

Fire broke out on Kilvey Hill on Thursday evening, sending flames up the hillside above St Thomas and a plume of smoke drifting across Swansea.

South Wales Police and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service confirmed they were aware of the fire, with people in the vicinity told to keep windows and doors closed because of the smoke.

Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart urged residents to avoid the area and follow the advice of the emergency services.

Images shared by Cllr Stewart show flames breaking through the gorse close above rooftops, with smoke towering over the hill and drifting across the east of the city.

The fire burned close to homes around Grenfell Park Road, near a school, with residents across the east of the city reporting smoke and falling ash through the evening.

Locals say firefighters had the blaze under control by around 11pm — at times letting it burn in a controlled way — and that nobody was evacuated, though some residents of Wallace Road chose to leave their homes for a time before returning.

By late on Friday morning the hillside was still smoking, according to residents. The full scale of the damage is not yet clear, and the cause is not known.

It is the third fire on the hill in fifteen months. In April last year, a blaze spread across 12 hectares of the hillside, with crews still damping down the following day.

Last July, firefighters tackled two separate seats of fire on the hill, one measuring roughly 200 metres by 200 metres, using knapsack sprayers, blowers and beaters through the evening.

The hill has seen worse still: in 2019, six homes on Deep Glade Close in St Thomas were evacuated just before midnight as flames threatened houses, with more than 45 firefighters tackling what one evacuated resident was told was a “touch and go” situation.

Kilvey Hill is one of Swansea’s best-loved green spaces — a community woodland and wildlife refuge ringed by homes in St Thomas, Port Tennant, Dan-y-graig, Bonymaen and Pentrechwyth.

The hill is also a construction site. The £49m Skyline gondola and luge attraction began building in May, and tree felling along the gondola corridor above St Thomas is due to continue through the summer.

There is no suggestion the works are connected to the fire.

The blaze comes at the end of a week in which crews have fought wildfires across Wales after a long dry spell, with the Welsh Government activating its crisis management arrangements in response.

The largest, at Blaenavon, has burned for days and sent smoke over communities miles away.

Grass fires in dry conditions can spread with frightening speed — anyone who spots one is urged to call 999 immediately and not attempt to tackle it themselves.

The smoke plumes that towered over the hill on Thursday evening had gone by Friday morning, leaving the hillside smouldering, a day before the Wales Airshow brings crowds and aerial displays to Swansea Bay.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Firefighters continue to dampen down 12 hectare Kilvey Hill fire
The April blaze that spread across 12 hectares of the hillside.

Fire crews tackle Kilvey Hill blaze as wildfire risks persist
Two seats of fire on the hill last July, and the pattern behind them.

KILVEY HILL: Tree felling to continue ‘for months’ as Skyline gondola corridor takes shape
Where the £49m gondola project has got to on the hill.

GORSEINON: Up to 400 homes planned for former 3M factory site

Up to 400 new homes could be built on the site of Gorseinon’s former 3M factory, under early plans lodged with Swansea Council.

Developer Walters has asked the council for pre-application advice on demolishing what remains of the plant and redeveloping the land off Gorseinon Road, between Gorseinon and Penllergaer — the first formal step before a full planning application.

A vision document drawn up with architects Hammond Architectural sets out what the developer calls a “residential-led” neighbourhood combining homes, workspace, a community hub and green space on the brownfield site.

The sprawling plant was 3M’s oldest manufacturing site outside the United States, opening in 1952 and turning out everything from aerosols and adhesives to personal care products.

It closed in 2021 with the loss of 89 jobs, when the American giant moved production to sites including Bangor in Northern Ireland.

Much of the factory has since been cleared — demolition plans lodged in 2023 took in nine buildings and structures, including the site’s landmark water tower.

The new homes would be arranged around green streets and public open spaces, with around 1.5 hectares set aside for employment space alongside the businesses already operating on part of the site.

Half a hectare at the heart of the site is earmarked for a community hub that could take in community facilities, local services and small-scale shops — though the document says that depends on “future need and viability”.

Woodland open space, a greenway along the site’s embankment, a games area and drainage ponds feature in the layout, with access off Gorseinon Road and walking and cycling links to nearby bus stops and shops.

The document is frank about the hurdles: contamination from seven decades of industrial use will need investigating and cleaning up, the site’s steep level changes complicate the layout, and noise from neighbouring industrial units will need managing.

The plans are indicative at this stage — the document notes the layout and figures are “for discussion purposes and subject to ongoing technical assessment and masterplanning”.

But those 400 homes would not be arriving in an empty landscape. Few corners of Swansea are already building — and arguing over — more housing than this one.

Almost opposite the lower end of the site, Persimmon is building Garden Village — reviving a model community first conceived in the early 1900s and halted by the First World War. By last autumn just 24 of its allocated 700 homes had been built, after ancient woodland concerns forced a public inquiry — but the pace has since picked up.

Persimmon is now down to its last three homes in the 86-home first phase, marketed as Cwrt y Brenin — and has started selling a second, 110-home phase, Llys Pentre, at the far end of the vast site, where plans show a proposed primary school, playing pitches and a commercial unit.

Even the housing association sector has a stake in the same patch: land at the edge of the Persimmon site is marked for future development by Beacon — which, as Coastal Housing before its merger with RHA Wales, revealed plans for a 17-home development in Garden Village.

Alongside the site off Llewellyn Road, Barratt’s Pentref Llewelyn — named for Penllergaer’s pioneering astrophotographers John and Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn, with Thereza believed to have taken the first known photograph of the moon — is all but sold out. Only the show home remains on the market, though Barratt’s premium David Wilson Homes brand is still selling on its half of the site, after the first homes sold within days of release.

Opposite that, Bellway’s Parc Mawr is furthest along — just one home is left on the market in its 184-home first phase, from 644 allocated across the wider site. Campaign group Preserve Penllergaer fought the allocation from the start, warning the promised primary school and relief road might never materialise.

The demand question answers itself: between them, the Persimmon, Barratt and Bellway phases ringing the 3M site have just five homes left to sell. Delivery is another matter — Swansea’s Local Development Plan promised more than 7,000 homes on its strategic sites within five years, and six years on fewer than 300 have been built.

To the south, the corridor between Penllergaer, Gowerton, Waunarlwydd and Fforestfach has become the county’s fiercest planning battleground. Campaigners warned a “continuous ribbon of housing” could stretch from Penllergaer to Gowerton when Persimmon unveiled a 600-home scheme there.

In Gowerton itself, the decade-long fight over 216 homes at Fairwood Terrace is now in the hands of a Welsh Government inspector, after councillors refused the scheme against their own officers’ advice and nearly 600 local submissions poured in. The appeal has already been dealt a blow by an order for a full environmental assessment.

Another scheme would put 230 homes near Gowerton train station. A major housing application has been lodged in Fforestfach too.

The boom runs on to Pontarddulais, where Persimmon has plans for a 500-home “zero-carbon ready” neighbourhood — approved in principle, not yet started. Another 95 homes are proposed on farmland there. A 30-home housing association scheme is also on the table.

It is not the group’s first go at giving worked-out industrial land a second act. Walters remediated and masterplanned the former Ffos Las opencast mine near Trimsaran — which the company has described as one of Europe’s deepest opencast excavations — delivering Ffos Las racecourse in 2009, the first purpose-built racecourse in Britain since 1927, with the housing handed to major builders Persimmon and Dandara.

Any full application will also run into the environmental rules now slowing schemes across north-west Swansea. Natural Resources Wales has ruled the Burry Inlet is in “unfavourable condition”, meaning larger developments in the catchment must prove they will not add nutrient pollution — a test that has already put major applications on hold, alongside national rules requiring flooding and drainage to be weighed for all new Welsh developments.

Then there are the roads. Junction 47 of the M4 — the area’s main pinch point — already operates beyond its design capacity, and Penllergaer Community Council has branded the development plan’s failure to deliver transport infrastructure “abysmal”. When a giant distribution warehouse was approved nearby in March, it came with a condition that £790,000 of junction works must be finished before it can even open. That was despite an earlier traffic light upgrade at the roundabout.

The 3M site does at least start from a different place to the green fields that have drawn the fiercest objections: it is brownfield land, and not the area’s only former factory getting a second life — along the road, the old Toyoda Gosei car parts plant is being converted into a plastics recycling centre due for completion by 2028.

As a pre-application enquiry, no decision has been made, and public consultation would follow any full application. The bigger question — where Swansea puts its next decade of homes — will be settled by the replacement development plan, with a detailed version due to be published this year.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

7,000 homes promised, just 300 built: Swansea’s housing blueprint falters
Our in-depth look at why delivery on the county’s strategic housing sites has stalled.

GOWERTON: The decade-long fight over homes, schools and mine shafts
The Fairwood Terrace saga now rests with a Welsh Government inspector.

Continuous ribbon of housing could stretch from Penllergaer to Gowerton
Campaigners’ warning as a 600-home scheme was unveiled between the two communities.

PENLLERGAER: Giant distribution warehouse approved next to M4
The decision that hinged on whether Junction 47 can cope with any more traffic.

SWANSEA: Kids can swim free at Wales National Pool almost every day this summer

Children can swim free at Swansea’s biggest pool for most of the school summer holidays.

Wales National Pool Swansea is running a free hour-long Splash and Play session for under-16s almost every day between now and the end of August, with accompanying adults paying £2.50.

The sessions run from 1.30pm to 2.30pm at the Sketty Lane pool, and places must be booked in advance.

Separate Family Splash sessions run from 10am to noon, Monday to Friday, at £2.50 per person with under-5s free — also bookable in advance.

The only break in the free sessions comes from 29 to 31 July, when the pool hosts a swimming competition.

Bookings are taken on 01792 513 513, through the WNPS website or on the Swansea Bay Sports Park app.

The venue — home to Wales’ only 50m pool — is run in partnership between Swansea Council and Swansea University.

Youngsters at the sessions will find floats and play equipment in the water, according to the pool’s general manager Jeremy Cole.

“If you and the family want to make the most of the summer, the Wales National Pool is a great place to visit,” he said.

“Apart from the 50m pool, we’ve also got a family-friendly 25m pool.”

He said the free sessions were “the perfect opportunity for children who are just getting used to the water to have some fun with their family and friends”.

For adults, a £12 two-week unlimited swimming membership goes on sale between 3 and 17 August.

The pool shop is also running a summer sale — 25% off, or 30% for members, on everything except Swansea University-branded items.

The free sessions come with south Wales in the grip of a prolonged hot spell. They also follow a VAT cut that has made family days out cheaper this summer.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

HEATWAVE: Hotter than Ibiza, Istanbul and the Maldives
South Wales tops the UK temperature charts in the first year on record to hit 35°C in May, June and July.

SUN SAFETY: One childhood sunburn can double melanoma risk
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VAT CUT: Theme parks, soft play and children’s meals to get cheaper this summer
Families will pay less to visit attractions and eat out after a temporary UK Government VAT cut.

SWANSEA: Life-saving bleed kits now line the seafront and Gower beaches for the summer

Life-saving bleed control kits are now stationed along Swansea‘s seafront and close to the county’s most popular beaches for the summer.

Swansea Council says there are now 384 of the kits across the county, with 18 along the seafront between the Tawe Bridge and Mumbles Lighthouse.

A further 26 sit within 50 metres of the most popular beaches across Swansea and Gower — including Swansea Bay, Bracelet Bay, Caswell, Langland, Oxwich, Port Eynon, Rhossili and Llangennith.

The kits are designed to help members of the public respond quickly to serious bleeding emergencies before paramedics arrive, and the council says they are simple to use even without medical training, with clear instructions inside.

The network is in place as the seafront’s busiest weekend of the summer arrives, with more than 200,000 people expected on the bay for the Wales Airshow on Saturday and Sunday.

It builds on the rollout that began last winter, when Swansea became the first area in Wales to install the kits at scale.

The council has worked with the charity Heartbeat Trust UK to build the network.

Council leader Rob Stewart said: “Swansea’s coastline is one of our greatest assets, especially during the summer when families and visitors spend time on our promenades and beaches.

“These bleed control kits are a vital addition to our public safety measures, ensuring that potentially life-saving equipment is available where it’s needed most.”

“We’re proud to be working with partners to help protect our communities and visitors,” he added.

The initiative was introduced by Melanie James, the former High Sheriff of West Glamorgan, who teamed up with Heartbeat Trust UK to build the network.

“Every second counts in a serious bleeding emergency,” she said. “By placing these kits in accessible locations across Swansea’s seafront and beaches, we are giving people the tools and confidence to act and potentially save a life.”

“This partnership is making a real difference to community safety,” she added.

People are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the locations of the kits near them — and to always call 999 first in any emergency.

The kits have been the subject of growing campaigns elsewhere: earlier this year campaigners called for bleed control kits in every Carmarthenshire school. A Llanelli councillor has also urged the Welsh Government to put life-saving kits in every school in Wales.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Swansea leads Wales with rollout of life-saving bleed control kits
Where the county-wide network began last winter.

SCHOOL SAFETY: Llanelli councillor calls on Welsh Government to put life-saving bleed kits in every school in Wales
The call for a national rollout in schools.

Campaigners call for bleed control kits in every Carmarthenshire school
The push to protect pupils across the county.

New defibrillator installed at Llanelli play area as council tackles ‘defib desert’
Life-saving equipment reaching more public places.

WALES AIRSHOW: Everything you need to know for this weekend

The Wales Airshow returns to Swansea Bay this Saturday and Sunday, 25 and 26 July — with a new evening show making its debut.

Swansea Council, which runs the event, says the free two-day airshow attracts more than 200,000 visitors to the bay.

The show is in a new slot this year, having moved to late July to avoid a clash with Swansea’s Ironman weekend.

In the skies, returning favourites include the RAF Typhoon, the RAF Tutor and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight — whose wartime Dakota, Hurricane and Spitfire are all set to appear.

The civilian line-up features the Rolls-Royce Spitfire, Jett Pitts, the Firebirds, the Gazelle Squadron, and the WWII Swordfish and Cold War Wasp helicopter pairing.

Appearing over Swansea Bay for the first time are the Strike Master Pair and the Otto Helicopter.

There’s one notable absence: the Red Arrows are not on the bill this year.

The big addition for 2026 is Wales Airshow: Afterburn — an evening show exclusive to Saturday, starting at 8.30pm.

The council says the sunset displays will include pyrotechnic performances from the Otto Helicopter and aerial manoeuvres from the Firebirds, complete with fireworks — plus the glow of the Typhoon’s afterburners over the bay.

The evening ends with a choreographed 200-drone display celebrating Swansea through images of the city’s landmarks and history, set to music and finishing with fireworks.

On the ground, the event runs from 10am to 6pm each day, with flight simulators, VR experiences, military displays, live music, a funfair, market stalls and food and drink along the seafront.

A ticketed viewing area, the Flight Deck, offers seating for both days and evening tickets for Afterburn, bookable through the airshow website.

Road closures start at noon on Friday, with the usual westbound closure of Oystermouth Road from its junction with West Way to Brynmill Lane — the full list of closures and parking bans is already in place for the weekend.

Getting there without a car is free: buses across Swansea are free every Saturday and Sunday from this weekend until the August bank holiday, with late services running for the Saturday night show.

Rail passengers face a complication: improvement works are taking place on the airshow weekend, and anyone travelling on the London Paddington to Swansea route is advised to check for the latest service updates before setting off.

For drivers, park and ride facilities are in place and parking can be pre-booked through the airshow website.

Free lost child wristbands will be available from information points, car park staff, cadets and stewards along the promenade, and from the police and fire service stands at the Cenotaph.

Emergency access will be maintained throughout, including to the Marina, Singleton Hospital and Swansea University, with first aid points run by St John Ambulance.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

WALES AIRSHOW: Full line-up confirmed for this weekend — but no Red Arrows this year
The full flying programme for both days — and the notable absence.

WALES AIRSHOW: The Swansea road closures and parking bans for this weekend
Every closure and parking restriction, from Friday noon onwards.

SWANSEA: Free buses return for the summer holidays — running until 11pm for the Airshow’s first night show
How to get there for nothing all weekend.

SWANSEA: WWII Swordfish and rare Cold War Navy helicopter to star at Wales Airshow
The historic naval pairing flying together over the bay.

SWANSEA: Battle of Britain Memorial Flight to return to Wales Airshow — with a rare chance to see wartime Dakota
The BBMF’s rare Dakota joins the Hurricane and Spitfire.

https://www.europesays.com/uk/1102979/ WALES AIRSHOW: Full line-up confirmed for this weekend — but no Red Arrows this year #Britain #GreatBritain #RedArrows #SwanseaCouncil #UK #UnitedKingdom #Wales #WalesAirshow

WALES AIRSHOW: Full line-up confirmed for this weekend — but no Red Arrows this year

The Wales Airshow is back over Swansea Bay this weekend, with a full flying programme confirmed — but this year’s crowds won’t see the Red Arrows.

The RAF’s famous display team is spending the summer touring the United States, marking 250 years of American independence, and their tour clashes with the Swansea dates. They won’t appear at either day of the show.

Their absence aside, the free two-day event on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 July still has one of its biggest line-ups in years, with the bay once again turned into a natural grandstand for the displays overhead.

Topping the bill is the RAF Typhoon, the fast jet whose thunderous, high-speed routine is one of the loudest and most powerful displays on the circuit.

The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight returns too, this year bringing the C-47 Dakota — a D-Day veteran transport aircraft — flying alongside the Spitfire and Hurricane.

There’s a strong naval thread this year. Navy Wings pairs the WWII-era Fairey Swordfish biplane with the Cold War Westland Wasp anti-submarine helicopter — two aircraft we previewed earlier this month.

Also flying is the Rolls-Royce Spitfire PS853, a photo-reconnaissance version that flew unarmed in the war, relying on speed and its Griffon engine to outrun the enemy.

The AeroSuperBatics Wingwalkers — the world’s only formation wing-walking team, performing since 1984 — bring the crowd-pleasing spectacle of performers strapped to the top wing of biplanes in flight.

Aerobatic thrills come from the Jet Pitts, a heavily modified biplane flown by British pilot Rich Goodwin, and the Firebirds, two light aircraft flying wingtip-to-wingtip through synchronised rolls and loops.

Rounding out the flying are the Strikemaster Pair of ex-military jets, the RAF Tutor display, the Gazelle Squadron helicopters and OTTO the Schweizer 300C.

On the ground, Swansea Promenade fills with attractions from 10am both days — funfair rides, live music, food and drink stalls, virtual reality experiences and family entertainment.

New this year, the action carries on into the evening on the Saturday with Wales Airshow Afterburn — and free buses will run until 11pm that night so families can stay for it.

The council says the airshow draws more than 200,000 visitors each year, making it one of the biggest free events in the region and a significant boost for local businesses.

Cllr Andrew Williams, Swansea Council’s cabinet member for development, said the airshow was “one of the highlights of Swansea’s summer” and promised “something for everyone”, from the displays overhead to the attractions on the ground.

Visitors are being urged to plan ahead — major road closures and parking bans are in force along the seafront from Friday — and parking can be pre-booked through the official site, walesnationalairshow.com, which also has an upgrade option: the premium Flight Deck, run with Cardiff Airport, offering a dedicated viewing area and seating.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

The Swansea road closures and parking bans for this weekend
Every closure, diversion and tow-away zone — with maps.

Battle of Britain Memorial Flight to return — with a rare chance to see wartime Dakota
The D-Day veteran flying in place of the Lancaster.

Free buses running until 11pm for the Airshow’s first night show
Getting there — and staying for Afterburn.

WALES AIRSHOW: The Swansea road closures and parking bans for this weekend

Drivers in Swansea face a weekend of road closures and parking bans as the city gears up for the Wales Airshow this Saturday and Sunday.

The free two-day show draws huge crowds to the seafront, and the council is closing a stretch of the main road along the bay to make room for the crowds and the ground displays.

Here’s what’s closing and when.

From Friday

The first closure starts at noon on Friday 24 July and runs until 5am on Monday 27 July.

During this time, Oystermouth Road and Mumbles Road will be closed westbound only, between the West Way junction and Brynmill Lane.

There will also be no access from the eastbound side of Oystermouth Road onto Bond Street, St Helens Road, Beach Street and Gorse Lane, and a 20mph limit will apply on the eastbound carriageway.

Access to the Marina stays open throughout, via Dunvant Place.

From Saturday morning

From 8am on Saturday, the closure widens: Oystermouth Road and Mumbles Road shut in both directions, from the West Way junction all the way to Sketty Lane, until 5am Monday. Diversions will be signposted.

Argyle Street stays reachable via a short diversion past the Civic Centre, and Marina access again continues via Dunvant Place.

Two further roads close between 8am and 7pm on both days — part of Pantycelyn Road, between Dyfed Avenue and Townhill Road, and part of Nicander Parade, between Llewelyn Circle and Creidiol Road.

Separately, Guildhall Road South closes from its Francis Street junction down to Oystermouth Road, from 6am Saturday until 5am Monday. Swansea University and Brynmill Lane stay reachable via Sketty Lane.

Parking bans and tow-aways

Drivers are warned not to leave cars on the closed routes. A tow-away operation runs from 10am Friday until 5am Monday on both sides of Oystermouth Road and Mumbles Road, both sides of Bryn Road, and the westbound side of Mansel Street.

The promenade between the Civic Centre and Sketty Lane is also off-limits to cyclists from 7am Thursday until 11pm on Tuesday 28 July.

The council says emergency access will be kept open at all times, and a residents’ and business contact line will run on 01792 635428 from 10am to 6.30pm on both Saturday and Sunday.

If you’re planning to drive in, the council has six pay-to-use car parks dotted around the city for the weekend — at the Recreation Ground, the Guildhall, Civic Centre East, Paxton Street, King George V playing fields and Singleton Hospital — all bookable in advance. Two park-and-ride sites also run from junction 42 (Fabian Way) and, for Gower, junction 47.

With the roads along the bay shut, the council is pointing visitors towards public transport — and free buses will run across Swansea every weekend of the summer holidays, with services extended to 11pm on the Saturday for the airshow’s new Afterburn evening displays.

Full closure maps and travel information are on the official airshow website, and residents with questions can email the council at [email protected].

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Free buses return for the summer holidays — running until 11pm for the Airshow’s first night show
How to get there without the car.

WWII Swordfish and rare Cold War Navy helicopter to star at Wales Airshow
Two of the aircraft flying this weekend.

Wales Airshow shifts to new summer date
Why the show moved to late July this year.

SWANSEA: Council electricians patent lightning-protection process experts said couldn’t be done

Two electricians who met working for Swansea Council have patented a new process for lightning protection systems — after some industry experts told them it couldn’t be done.

David James and Ross Miller, founders of James Miller Solutions, developed the technique over hundreds of hours of testing — much of it, by David’s own account, in a shed.

Lightning and high-voltage earthing conductors are fitted anywhere a strike could cause damage or danger — churches, stadiums, hospitals, airports, power stations and electrical substations among them.

Joining the copper or aluminium parts of those systems has traditionally involved blow torches or high-heat chemical reactions — methods the pair say carry safety risks, can fail, and produce high carbon emissions.

Their answer is an induction-based process — using electromagnetic heating rather than open flame — which they say makes the bonding safer, more consistent and less dependent on operator skill.

The idea came on a live job in Port Talbot during Covid. “It became clear there had to be a better way,” David said. “From there, we spent hundreds of hours developing and refining the system in a shed.”

“Coming from Swansea — with its strong copper and engineering history — we’ve always understood the importance of working safely and precisely with metals,” he added.

Ross said the work “involved constant testing and refining, even when we were told it wouldn’t work”, adding: “In many ways, it reflects Swansea’s long engineering tradition — solving real problems through practical innovation.”

According to the company, independent testing at Cardiff University’s high-voltage laboratory showed the system could handle electrical loads around three times stronger than a typical lightning strike — while tests at Swansea University’s Swansea Materials Research and Testing (SMaRT) facility found it withstood up to 9,700lbs of physical force without failing.

The pair met as electricians at Swansea Council. David now teaches renewable energy at Gower College Swansea, while Ross still works for the authority — and a council secondment has allowed him to work on the technology full-time after James Miller Solutions was selected for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Regional Talent Engines programme.

“We never set out to become entrepreneurs — we were just trying to solve a problem we faced at work,” Ross said. “Along the way we’ve become inventors and business owners, which has been an incredible experience.”

The project was supported by a Swansea Council business innovation grant, funded through the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund.

Council leader Rob Stewart said: “It’s inspiring to see two people who started their careers with the council develop an idea that has the potential to improve safety and sustainability across the electrical industry.”

David said the approach “could significantly reduce carbon emissions compared to traditional methods” on large projects such as substations.

The company says the technology is attracting interest from electricity network operators, major contractors, universities and industry bodies, with talks under way about trials — and the pair plan to expand into infrastructure and construction projects across south Wales and beyond.

Fittingly, the pair marked the news at the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks — the cradle of the copper industry David cites — where restoration of the historic engine houses is gathering pace.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

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CASTLE SQUARE: First foundations go in for Swansea’s new city centre gardens

The transformation of Swansea’s Castle Square has reached its next stage — with the first foundations of the new Castle Square Gardens now being built.

Diggers moved onto the square in the spring, and the site today is barely recognisable: the fountains, steps and paving of the old square have gone, with the ground dug out to new levels behind bright red hoardings.

Swansea Council says preparation work — including diverting underground utilities and removing and storing materials for reuse — is complete, with main construction now underway and, the contractor says, running in line with the programme.

Public spaces contractor Knights Brown is delivering the scheme, with access maintained for pedestrians and surrounding businesses while it builds.

The council says the finished gardens will bring significantly more green space to the square, along with new seating, a water feature, improved lighting and areas for events — as shown in the design images released last autumn.

Council leader Rob Stewart said it was “great to see the transformation of this important site firmly underway”, adding the council was confident people would enjoy the finished space.

Knights Brown divisional director Tim Waller said the scheme “provides a fond nod to the location’s past as a traditional city centre garden space”.

The design comes from architects ACME, with consultants Spider Projects also working on the scheme.

When we visited the site last month, diggers had just begun reshaping the square — and Mr Stewart said he would love to see a new big screen in place in time for next year’s Six Nations.

That nod to the past runs deep. The square stands on the site of the Ben Evans department store — one of the grandest shops in Wales until it was destroyed in the Three Nights’ Blitz of the Second World War.

The bomb site became the Castle Gardens, the formal lawns and flowerbeds remembered by generations of Swansea shoppers, before the 1990s remodelling swept them away for the hard-paved plaza of recent memory — its amphitheatre steps, fountains and Leaf Boat sculpture finally removed in January as the site was cleared.

And it’s not just the square itself changing — almost every building around it is being reshaped too.

The former Castle Cinema building is being converted into flats and retail units by a housing association. On Castle Street, Turtle Bay closed its doors in April after ten years overlooking the square.

On Princess Way, Søstrene Grene drew queues along Castle Square when it opened last month in the former Zara unit at Castle Quays. Ten new flats are planned for the floors above.

A short walk away on Oxford Street, Y Storfa has opened in the former BHS and been named Wales’ Project of the Year. Next door, M&S closed after 69 years.

Even the building housing the square’s McDonald’s is in line for change, with Welsh Government millions backing plans for a major new flats development at the site.

The works form part of what the council describes as a £1bn regeneration programme across the city centre — and by the time the gardens open in summer 2027, the square they sit in will look out on an almost entirely changed city.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Work ramps up on the square’s green makeover — and a new big screen could show the Six Nations
Our last visit as diggers began reshaping the square.

New images reveal greener, more vibrant future for Castle Square
The designs for the transformed square.

Leaf Boat sculpture removed from Castle Square
The fountain and sculpture cleared as the redevelopment moved ahead.

PARC TAWE: Ninja Warrior venue could be replaced by six padel courts under new plans

One of Swansea’s best-known family activity venues could be replaced by courts for one of the country’s fastest-growing racket sports.

Plans have been lodged to turn the Ninja Warrior UK Adventure Park at Parc Tawe into a six-court indoor padel facility, in a move that would end the obstacle-course attraction’s four-year run at the retail park.

The venue is the large unit shared with Aldi, on the site of the former Toys R Us, facing the car park at the southern end of the park.

The application, submitted to Swansea Council by Pure Padel Clubs Ltd, would see the ground floor turned into five doubles courts and one singles court, with a new mezzanine level, changing rooms, showers, a reception and a café.

Ninja Warrior’s parent company confirmed it is reviewing the venue’s future. Burhill Group Ltd, which also runs the Bunkers! crazy golf, darts and ping-pong venue off Wind Street, said it had been talking to a padel operator but had not reached a decision.

Chief operating officer Stephen Brown said the company had engaged a UK padel operator to explore potential future uses for the site, and that a planning application had been submitted to the council.

He added that no final decision had been made, that Ninja Warrior Swansea continues to operate as normal until further notice, and that the company’s immediate priority was keeping staff informed.

The centre opened to considerable fanfare in 2022, modelled on the Ninja Warrior UK television game show, with an array of obstacles, tunnels and towers. Co-host and football pundit Chris Kamara attended the launch and praised the course as “as good as it gets”.

Padel is a racket sport that blends elements of tennis and squash, played on an enclosed court roughly a third of the size of a tennis court and surrounded by walls of glass and metal mesh. It is recognised by the Lawn Tennis Association, which has ambitions to grow the game across Britain.

The sport is spreading quickly across Swansea. Earlier this year the council unveiled proposals that included padel courts along the foreshore between the marina and Blackpill, among a wider vision for the bay.

Pure Padel says it struggled to find anywhere else in Swansea big enough. Padel courts need a lot of floor space and a high ceiling, and after searching commercial property listings in late June the operator concluded there was nowhere closer to the city centre that fit — leaving the Parc Tawe unit, it says, as its best option.

The company, which says it runs sites across England and one in Scotland, wants Wales to be its next move, with hopes of opening 30 venues within five years. It says its courts elsewhere are busy more than 90 per cent of the time, and that an indoor home means play carries on whatever the weather.

It says it would run a junior programme at weekends and hold women-only sessions and sessions for older players, with coaches trained in Spain — the country where the sport took off.

Parc Tawe rose on the filled-in North Dock in the late 1980s and was given a £15m makeover a decade ago — the overhaul that brought the UK’s very first Denny’s, the American diner chain, to Swansea, alongside the Odeon cinema and bowling alley that anchor the park today. It is now owned by regeneration company Centurion Group, whose wider plans for the city include the former Debenhams store in the centre.

The council is expected to decide on the plans later this year. Until then, Ninja Warrior stays open.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Padel courts, zip wire and a year-round lido: Swansea’s big plans for the bay
The council’s vision for the foreshore between the marina and Blackpill.

Planning permission secured for drive-through restaurant at Parc Tawe
Another change at the Parc Tawe retail and leisure park.

New arrivals, fresh casualties and the tenants tipped to fill the former Debenhams
Where things stand with Centurion’s plans for Swansea retail.

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.

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.

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
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ST HELEN’S: Europe’s tallest sports floodlight comes down after more than 60 years
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SWANSEA FERRY: ‘Wales is an important part of our world’ — Brittany Ferries watching Swansea’s ferry ambitions with genuine interest

When Swansea Bay News told the story of the night boat to Cork and two centuries of crossings before it, the response from readers showed how much Swansea misses being a ferry port.

So we asked the industry itself whether the city could ever be one again — putting the same four questions to five of the biggest ferry operators in British and Irish waters.

Each was asked whether it had been approached about, or had any interest in, the proposed Swansea–North Devon crossing; whether a revived Swansea–Cork route would ever feature in its plans; whether a direct Wales–France link — Swansea to St Malo or a comparable port — would be operationally realistic; and whether south Wales features in its network planning.

And the answer from one of Europe’s best-known operators carried real warmth: Wales, Brittany Ferries told us, is already “an important part of our world” — and the company is following Swansea’s ferry ambitions “with genuine interest”.

A spokesperson for Brittany Ferries said: “Wales is already an important part of our world, even without a direct route. A significant proportion of our customers travel to us from Wales, and the trade and cultural links between Wales and our network of ports go back a long way.”

“So we follow developments like the Swansea/North Devon feasibility work with genuine interest,” they added.

On the specific routes, however, the company was clear: “We’ve nothing to announce regarding a Swansea/North Devon, Swansea/Cork or Wales/France service.”

The spokesperson said route planning depended on a wide range of commercial, operational and vessel-availability factors, and the company would not speculate on hypothetical routes — but added that while south Wales does not feature in its published network plans, the network is kept “under ongoing review”.

Brittany Ferries’ warmth stood out, because none of the five operators said it was considering a Swansea service — and none said it had been approached about running the proposed North Devon crossing.

Danish operator DFDS gave the most direct answer. A spokesperson said: “While DFDS continuously assesses potential route opportunities across its network, we are not currently considering or pursuing any services involving Swansea or South Wales.”

P&O Ferries declined to comment. Irish Ferries — whose predecessor B&I ran the original Swansea–Cork crossing before switching to Pembroke Dock in 1979 — acknowledged the questions but had not responded by our deadline, and Stena Line did not respond.

Associated British Ports, which owns the Port of Swansea, did respond — and left the door open. A spokesperson said: “As the owner and operator of the port of Swansea, Associated British Ports will continue working with any interested parties regarding the viability of a new ferry operation from Swansea.”

The question of who would actually operate a Swansea service has hung over the council’s ferry ambitions since the feasibility report promising 800,000 annual passengers and a £600m boost was published — with its own figures now facing council scrutiny.

The operators’ answer to a second question — how significant a constraint vessel availability now is — goes to the heart of why Swansea’s last ferry died.

Swansea Cork Ferries stopped sailing in 2006 after selling the Superferry and failing to find a replacement vessel, ending a route that had carried 2.85 million passengers since 1987.

Fastnet Line revived the crossing in 2010, but it lasted less than two years before financial collapse — the second failure Swansea Bay News put to the operators in asking what would need to be different today.

The council’s proposed crossing points the other way — a fast catamaran to the south west of England rather than a night boat to Ireland — and drew 4,396 consultation responses, with 97.8 per cent in support.

The feasibility report is due before council scrutiny, and Swansea Bay News will report any operator responses received after publication.

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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”.

Working 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
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https://www.diningandcooking.com/2720192/legendary-swansea-restaurant-gets-food-hygiene-rating-of-zero/

Legendary Swansea restaurant gets food hygiene rating of zero

‘The employees responsible no longer work for the company,’ the Mediterranean restaurant told us La Braseria in Swansea has received a zero food hygiene rating One of Swansea’s longest-running restaurants…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanFood #health #Mediterranean #mediterraneanfood #Restaurants #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2720192/legendary-swansea-restaurant-gets-food-hygiene-rating-of-zero/

Legendary Swansea restaurant gets food hygiene rating of zero

‘The employees responsible no longer work for the company,’ the Mediterranean restaurant told us La Braseria in Swansea has received a zero food hygiene rating One of Swansea’s longest-running restaurants…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanFood #health #Mediterranean #mediterraneanfood #Restaurants #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2720192/legendary-swansea-restaurant-gets-food-hygiene-rating-of-zero/

Legendary Swansea restaurant gets food hygiene rating of zero

‘The employees responsible no longer work for the company,’ the Mediterranean restaurant told us La Braseria in Swansea has received a zero food hygiene rating One of Swansea’s longest-running restaurants…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanFood #health #Mediterranean #mediterraneanfood #Restaurants #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2720192/legendary-swansea-restaurant-gets-food-hygiene-rating-of-zero/

Legendary Swansea restaurant gets food hygiene rating of zero https://www.diningandcooking.com/2720192/legendary-swansea-restaurant-gets-food-hygiene-rating-of-zero/ #health #Mediterranean #MediterraneanFood #Restaurants #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil

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https://www.europesays.com/uk/907534/ The most sought after primary schools in Swansea revealed #Britain #Education #GreatBritain #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil #UK #UnitedKingdom #Wales #WalesSchools

https://www.europesays.com/uk/898157/ The one-mile cycle path that’s going to cost £8m #Britain #GreatBritain #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil #UK #UnitedKingdom #Wales

https://www.europesays.com/ch/30245/ Businessman pulls out of plans to rejuvenate Swansea’s iconic Swiss Cottage #Sketty #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil #Swiss #Switzerland

https://www.europesays.com/uk/770627/ Watchdog called in to investigate WRU deal with Y11 amid new Ospreys twist #Britain #GreatBritain #Ospreys #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil #UK #UnitedKingdom #Wales

https://www.europesays.com/uk/716916/ Street of chaos had police there ‘every day’ then it all changed bar one sad exception #Britain #GreatBritain #Penlan #Places #Premium #SouthWalesPolice #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil #UK #UnitedKingdom #Wales