#townhill — Public Fediverse posts
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TOWNHILL: ‘One of the kindest’ — Big Issue seller Liam Harmer named as man who died in Elphin Gardens flat fire
The man who died in a flat fire in Townhill last week has been named as Liam Harmer — a Big Issue seller who spent more than 15 years becoming one of Sketty’s most familiar faces.
Mr Harmer, 51, died at his first-floor flat in Elphin Gardens on Tuesday 14 July. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
South Wales Police said there were no suspicious circumstances, and had initially appealed for help tracing his next of kin.
The coroner has since confirmed his identity, according to the Big Issue, which has led tributes to one of its longest-serving Welsh vendors.
Mr Harmer sold the magazine on and off for more than 15 years, and his pitch in Sketty made him a fixture of the suburb — with many of his regular customers becoming friends.
Tom Watts, the Big Issue’s sales and operations manager in Wales, knew Mr Harmer for over a decade, having first met him in the magazine’s Swansea office.
“He was one of the kindest vendors I ever met,” Mr Watts said.
He said he could not recall anyone ever having a bad word to say about him, and that he would be sadly missed by friends, customers and everyone who knew him.
Mr Watts said selling the magazine could be an incredibly tough way to make a living, and that the pressures vendors face can strain lives and relationships — but that Mr Harmer had remained unfailingly pleasant and gentle throughout.
The pair shared a love of science fiction, and Mr Watts recalled long phone conversations about the novels of Arthur C. Clarke — with Mr Harmer often ringing the office simply for a chat.
Mr Harmer told his own story in the magazine’s My Pitch section in 2020, crediting his years of selling with helping him through anxiety and depression.
He described how the walk to his pitch each morning lifted his spirits, and how the first sale of the day made him happier and more talkative — saying the routine of getting out, meeting people and chatting had helped him recover.
He also spoke at the time about reconnecting with his family, and about the comfort he found in reading.
Crews from the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service attended the fire alongside police last Tuesday afternoon.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, the Samaritans can be contacted free, day or night, on 116 123.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
TOWNHILL: Man dies in Elphin Gardens flat fire — as police try to trace his next of kin
Emergency services were called to the first-floor flat on Tuesday afternoon.GORSEINON: ‘Always loved, always remembered’ — family pay tribute to Ceiran Evans, 18
The family of the 18-year-old who died in Gorseinon share their memories of him.LLANELLI: ‘Thousands of children’ — charity boss retires after 29 years keeping Carmarthenshire’s kids safe
#BigIssue #MidAndWestWalesFireAndRescueService #Sketty #SouthWalesPolice #Townhill
Tracy Pike MBE steps down from CYCA after nearly three decades supporting local families. -
TOWNHILL: Man dies in Elphin Gardens flat fire — as police try to trace his next of kin
A man has died following a fire at a flat in Elphin Gardens, Townhill.
South Wales Police said the man was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics on Tuesday afternoon. There are no suspicious circumstances.
Formal identification has not yet taken place, and officers are working to identify and trace the man’s next of kin.
Anyone with concerns for a friend or relative living on Elphin Gardens is asked to contact South Wales Police on 101, quoting reference 2600225184.
The response
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said crews from Swansea West, Morriston and Port Talbot fire stations were mobilised at 4.01pm on Tuesday to the fire, in a first-floor flat measuring around ten metres by ten metres.
Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used a hose reel jet and a ventilation fan to extinguish the fire, supported by a water bowser from Port Talbot and an aerial turntable ladder from Morriston.
Police said they were called to reports of the fire at 4.35pm.
The incident drew a multi-agency response, with South Wales Police and the Welsh Ambulance Service alongside fire crews.
Crews left the scene at 7.29pm, the fire service said.
The scene has since been made secure by the local authority, according to police.
Anyone who may be able to help officers identify the man’s next of kin is again urged to call 101, quoting 2600225184.
If you have been affected by this story, support is available — Samaritans can be contacted free, day or night, on 116 123.
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MILFORD HAVEN: Large fire at Impala Terminals oil storage site sends smoke across the Haven
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Crews from three stations responded to the fire at the disused site.HEATWAVE: Hundreds of schools to shut or move online as red warning peaks
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How June’s record heat disrupted daily life across the region. -
SWANSEA: Three more skateparks open as £3m wheeled sports drive rolls on
Skaters and BMX riders have wasted no time getting on three new wheeled sports parks that have just opened across Swansea.
The biggest is a street plaza-style park at Victoria Park, joined by upgraded sites at the Phoenix Centre in Townhill and Mynydd Newydd in Penlan.
All three were being ridden before anyone had cut a ribbon — the official openings aren’t due until later this summer.
They are the latest sites to land under Swansea Council‘s £3 million spend on skate, BMX and scooter facilities, a programme riders themselves pushed for over several years.
The council says the goal is to put most residents within two miles of somewhere to skate or ride.
The Victoria Park plaza is the standout. Work there has been tracked from the first diggers on site through to its promised spring opening, and it has now opened its gates.
The designs were drawn up by specialist firm Curve Studio, with the building work handed to contractors Wheelscape, Bendcrete Leisure and Canvas Spaces.
Cllr Andrew Stevens, the council’s cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said the early turnout showed the parks were hitting the mark.
“This investment is about creating welcoming, high-quality places where people of all ages can be active, develop skills and enjoy modern facilities close to home,” he said.
Council leader Rob Stewart was also at Victoria Park to see the new plaza in use.
The three openings follow upgrades already finished at Coed Bach in Pontarddulais and Melin Mynach in Gorseinon.
They build on years of lobbying by local riders, who backed the spending as a way to grow the sport and give young people somewhere to go.
There is plenty still in the pipeline. A BMX-focused park is planned for the Elba sports complex in Gowerton, with a small cycling track in Blaen-y-maes, a new pump track in Bishopston and a refurbished one at Clyne Valley.
A junior pump track is lined up for Gorseinon and a skatepark for Ynystawe Park — both shown off in design form late last year.
Further schemes include dirt tracks at Coed Gwilym Park in Clydach and Coed Bach Park in Pontarddulais, plus pump tracks at Morriston Park, Heol Las Park in Birchgrove, Maesteg Park in St Thomas and the SA1 Prince of Wales Dock.
The whole drive sits inside the council’s wider £11m spend on play areas and recreation since the pandemic, paid for through ward budgets, the Community Investment Fund, town and community council money and Welsh Government active travel grants.
It all comes shortly after skaters, families and PCSOs got together for a community paint day at Mumbles skatepark, brightening up the ramps with their own designs.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
New Victoria Park skate plaza on track for spring opening
How the city’s flagship new street-plaza facility took shape.New BMX and skatepark designs revealed for Gowerton and Ynystawe
A look at two of the sites still to come under the programme.Council announces £11m investment in play areas and wheeled sports facilities
The wider recreation spending the skatepark drive sits within.Skaters and PCSOs give Mumbles skatepark a colourful makeover
#BMX #CllrAndrewStevens #CurveStudio #PhoenixCentre #SkatePark #Skateboarding #SwanseaCouncil #Townhill #VictoriaPark
A community paint day brightens up the ramps. -
TOWNHILL: ‘A beacon of what good community work looks like’ — the Phoenix Centre at 25, through the eyes of one of its own
For 25 years, the Phoenix Centre has sat at the heart of Townhill — a community hub that has weathered the estate’s hardest moments and quietly shaped countless lives.
As the centre marks its anniversary, few people embody its story better than Zoe Murphy: born and raised on the hill, a University of Wales Trinity Saint David graduate, and now a project coordinator at the very centre she first walked into as a young dance teacher.
Run by the Hill Community Development Trust, the Phoenix is a social enterprise that ploughs any profit back into the community. It was set up to tackle poverty and drive regeneration on one of Wales’s first purpose-built council estates.
Phoenix Centre in Townhill
(Image: Phoenix Centre)For Murphy, it has been a thread running through her whole adult life.
She became a mother at 18 but never let go of her ambition to go to university — and found her chance close to home, at what was then the Swansea Institute of Higher Education, now UWTSD, which had a campus in Townhill at the time.
“I was very academic, so going to university was always part of the plan — it was just about finding a way to make it work,” she said. “With a campus based in Townhill at the time, accessing education within my own community made all the difference while raising my daughter.”
She graduated in 2002 with a degree in English Studies, Drama and Media — a course that chimed with her love of storytelling and performance — while already running a successful dance school locally.
She remembers her student years as “one of the happiest times” of her life, and a foundation for the freelance work that still shapes her practice today.
Her career since has never followed a single track. She began in dance — teaching, choreographing and creating dance theatre — before moving into community arts and engagement.
“That’s where I really developed my voice as an artist,” she said.
A city-wide community dance project later reconnected her with UWTSD, leading to six years working in community engagement at the university. She has also worked across schools, children’s residential care, prisons and work-based learning, and in 2018 completed a qualification in Post Compulsory Education and Training.
Her bond with the Phoenix spans much of her life. She used the centre for her dance classes when it first opened, as well as for social activities and community events — so when she joined the organisation in 2025 as a project coordinator, it felt like a natural continuation of a relationship stretching back a quarter of a century.
In her current role she runs the weekly youth club, coordinates community groups and helps develop local events.
“I really believe in the power the centre has,” she said. “It’s in the heart of Townhill, and I see the hard graft it takes to keep it going and its absolute importance to our community.”
For Murphy, the work is personal. She is acutely aware of the negative perceptions that have dogged the area — perceptions she says miss the truth of the place.
“What I’ve experienced growing up and working here is strength, compassion, and a real sense of people looking out for each other,” she said. “There’s a strong identity here, and a pride that people don’t always see from the outside.”
Council houses in Townhill (Image: Swansea Council)That pride was tested five years ago. In May 2021, Mayhill made national headlines after two hours of violent disorder in which cars were torched and homes attacked, drawing condemnation from the then home secretary and the label “war zone.”
Eighteen people were later jailed for a combined total of more than 83 years, with South Wales Police later apologising for its handling of the night after an independent report. But residents have always pointed to what came next — neighbours pouring out to clear up and support those who had been targeted — as the truer picture of the hill.
In the aftermath, the council announced major investment in the area, covering sport and youth facilities, roads and the environment, and an independent review was set up to support the community.
The Phoenix has remained a constant through it all. The centre features in a new report by the Wales Centre for Public Policy examining poverty stigma in Swansea and the role of local services, and was visited recently by BBC Wales as part of its reporting on life on the estate.
It is far from the centre’s first turn in the spotlight for the right reasons. In 2024 it added a new play area for local children — one of a steady stream of community-led improvements that have made it, in our own past reporting, one of Swansea’s busiest and most vibrant community centres.
Murphy sees the 25th anniversary as a moment to reflect — and a reminder of what the centre has meant to Townhill and neighbouring Mayhill since it opened at a time of real need.
“Spaces like that don’t last 25 years without commitment, and without people believing in what it offers,” she said.
She is clear, too, that the work depends on sustained support.
“Places like the Phoenix Centre show what’s possible when communities are properly resourced,” she said. “It shouldn’t be the exception.”
For her, the centre stands as “a beacon of what good community work looks like, and what can happen when people are given the space and support to make something work.”
Murphy, who also writes, captured the spirit of the estate in a poem composed for the centre’s anniversary. Titled “The Hill Dwellers,” it turns the outside world’s assumptions on their head — closing on a line of defiant belonging.
The Hill Dwellers
by Zoe Murphy
Rows of houses lean into the sky,
weathered like the women who walk beneath them,
strong-backed, sharp-tongued,
kind when it counts.We live close here.
Close like window to window,
door to door,
life to life.
Somewhere, sprayed on the wall outside No. 14:
“Babe, you look so cool.”
A sentence left hanging,
like laundry, like meaning.This place is not perfect.
It peels and shouts and forgets itself sometimes.
There’s history in these bricks.
And it’s ours.A single mum with a house full of noise —
music upstairs, laundry on radiators,
takeaway wrappers and late-night advice
they pretend not to hear.Graffiti blooms on the bus stop glass,
a whisper in scarlet: “Babe, you look so cool.”
A love letter in a place no one’s meant to look,
proof that someone once felt something
loud enough to scrawl it softly.
Someone needed to say it —
and someone else needed to hear it.The Hill Dwellers,
holding routines, rain and tea.
From here we see it all —
the backs of buildings,
the weather rolling in.
We carry our lives up these slopes:
shopping bags, heartbreak, school shoes,
bits of gossip tucked in pockets,
a line someone once wrote
still tucked in my head some mornings
when the fog sits low.
We are above, not below.
We belong.
Babe, you look so cool.Related stories from Swansea Bay News
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The panel established to help the community recover in the wake of the unrest.Council leader announces major new investment in Mayhill
Funding for sport, youth facilities, roads and the environment on the estate.Children thrilled by Townhill’s new play area
#homepage #Mayhill #PhoenixCentre #Swansea #Townhill #UWTSD
A new play space at the Phoenix Centre, one of the city’s busiest community hubs. -
TOWNHILL: Family-run convenience store reopens as a SPAR after major revamp
A family-run convenience store in Townhill has been given a new lease of life, reopening its doors as a SPAR after a major revamp.
Local retailer Mandeep Sohal has transformed the shop in partnership with A F Blakemore, the UK’s largest independent SPAR wholesaler — and he was joined by family and staff to mark the occasion outside the newly branded store.
Gone is the old fit-out, replaced by a brighter layout reworked around how local people actually shop, with a noticeably bigger range of fresh, chilled and frozen food on the shelves.
The store has kept the things the community relies on, too. A Post Office counter still operates inside, and a bank of 24/7 parcel lockers sits out front for collections and returns at any hour.
It is the kind of independent shop that does a lot of quiet heavy lifting in a community like Townhill — the place you nip to for a pint of milk, a parcel and your pension, all in one stop.
Mr Sohal said the switch to SPAR had breathed new life into the business.
“The new look and improved offer have given the store a real lift,” he said.
“We’re proud to bring more choice, better value and a much stronger fresh range to the Townhill community, and we’re excited to welcome even more shoppers in.”
He said there was more to come, with the shop preparing to roll out Iceland frozen ranges — part of a wider tie-up that has seen SPAR stores across the UK begin stocking the supermarket’s popular own-brand lines.
A F Blakemore said the changeover had been handled without closing the doors on customers, with its team working alongside the store throughout the conversion.
The wholesaler supplies and supports hundreds of independent retailers across the country, all trading under the familiar green SPAR sign.
For Townhill, it means a long-standing local shop carrying on — just with a lot more on the shelves.
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An application to convert empty floors above a nearby supermarket into flats. -
TATA STEEL THEFT: Three workers jailed over £1.2m tin plot at Llanelli’s Trostre works
Three Tata Steel workers who helped steal almost £1.2m of tin from the Trostre works in Llanelli have been jailed.
The men used their positions inside the plant to smuggle out nearly 49 tonnes of tin ingots over 15 months, melting them down and selling them to scrap merchants.
Thomas Ashford, Stewart Jones and Richard Jones each conspired with an outside man, Matthew Membury, in what a judge called “a very sophisticated operation.”
Trostre Steelworks makes rolled steel packaging – including all of the baked bean cans for food manufacturer Heinz according to Tata Steel. (Image: Tata Steel)Sentencing the men at Swansea Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Paul Thomas KC said they had involved themselves in the theft of tonnes of tin on a “most considerable scale.”
The court heard the plot ran between July 2023 and October 2024, with the tin sold on to metal dealers and the profits split between the gang.
Prosecutor Craig Jones said the case involved a “persistent and sophisticated conspiracy” and a gross abuse of trust by employees at the site.
Matthew Membury
(Image: South Wales Police)Stewart Jones
(Image: Dyfed Powys Police)Thomas Ashford
(Image: Dyfed Powys Police)The scheme was set up by Ashford, a supervisor in the casthouse, who had ready access to tonnes of valuable tin.
But the key to it was Stewart Jones, a site security supervisor who controlled who came onto the works.
At first, Jones simply opened the gates to let Membury drive his van in at agreed times, before waving him back out once it was loaded.
He later created a cloned Tata ID pass in the false name of David Davies, allowing Membury to come and go as if he were a legitimate employee.
Once inside, Membury would drive to the casthouse, where Ashford loaded the ingots into his Ford Transit using a forklift truck.
Ashford also brought in one of the men he supervised — forklift driver Richard Jones, a former soldier — to help load the van on some occasions.
Each theft took only minutes, the court heard, and was timed for shift changes when there were plenty of comings and goings.
The conspiracy unravelled after suspicions were raised about ingots going missing shortly after being delivered, and Dyfed-Powys Police were called in to monitor the site.
Officers stopped Membury’s van at the plant gates at 6am on 11 October 2024, finding a load of tin ingots inside — along with three swords.
Ashford was arrested in his car in the casthouse car park, with the two others detained separately.
Trostre Steelworks
(Image: Tata Steel)A financial investigation found £743,826 had been paid into Membury’s bank account in 68 deposits from various firms between July 2023 and September 2024.
He kept £339,770, passing £256,500 to Ashford, £85,500 to Stewart Jones and £62,000 to Richard Jones.
In a statement to the court, Tata said the thefts had a “significant and damaging” effect on the firm and on the morale of its 600 staff at the Llanelli site.
The company said it had spent tens of thousands of pounds improving security, and that workers were no longer allowed to park on site.
The judge said Ashford had initiated the thefts in a “gross abuse of trust” given his position as supervisor at the casthouse.
Of Stewart Jones, the judge said he had been “pivotal” to the operation as security supervisor — paid by Tata to prevent the very thing he was doing, in what amounted to a “betrayal” of the firm.
Mitigating for Stewart Jones, Matt Murphy said his client was “wholeheartedly remorseful” and had been in significant debt at the time, when “the attractiveness of the enterprise was too much to resist.”
David Singh, for Ashford, said his client had been candid and admitted the scheme was his idea, while his “difficult background” provided context to his behaviour without excusing it.
Adam Roxborough, for Richard Jones, said his client had served seven years with the Royal Welch Fusiliers with an “exemplary” record, was involved only on an “ad hoc” basis, and had taken part “because it was easy money.”
Thomas Ashford, 35, of Tairgwaith, Brynamman, and Stewart Jones, 56, of Llanelli, were each jailed for three years and four months.
Richard Jones, 39, of Townhill, Swansea, was given a 20-month sentence suspended for two years, with 250 hours of unpaid work and a three-month curfew.
The court heard Ashford and Stewart Jones will serve between 30 and 40 per cent of their sentences in custody before being released on licence.
Membury, 32, of Landore, Swansea, refused to attend the hearing and will be sentenced at a later date.
He is already serving a 32-month prison sentence imposed in January for his part in a separate revenge arson plot, in which a man’s car was set alight in Swansea Vale over a business grievance.
The judge said Membury’s sentence for the Tata conspiracy would not begin until he appears in court to receive it.
The stolen tin has never been recovered, and a proceeds of crime investigation will now examine the men’s finances.
After the case, a Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said it had been “a carefully orchestrated operation which included the use of a fake Tata ID pass,” and a gross breach of trust by employees, some in managerial or security positions, that cost the company more than £1m.
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#Brynamman #CPS #CrownProsecutionService #DyfedPowysPolice #featured #industry #Landore #Llanelli #metalTheft #SwanseaCrownCourt #Tairgwaith #TataSteel #theft #Townhill #Trostre #TrostreTinplateWorks
Research that could help secure the future of the Trostre tinplate works. -
SWANSEA: Three arrested in dawn raids targeting organised crime network
Three people have been arrested in Swansea following dawn raids carried out by officers targeting organised crime.
South Wales Police’s organised crime team, supported by specialist officers, executed three warrants this morning as part of the operation.
A 24-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman from Mount Pleasant were among those arrested.
A 49-year-old woman from Townhill was also arrested.
All three remain in police custody.
South Wales Police said tackling organised crime was a priority for the force.
The operation was carried out by the force’s specialist organised crime team, which focuses on disrupting criminal networks across the region.
South Wales Police said: “Dawn raids by the Swansea organised crime team and specialist officers have seen three warrants executed and three people arrested in connection with organised crime.”
The force added it would continue to be “relentless in our pursuit of criminals to protect communities from harm.”
No details have been released about the nature of the organised crime being investigated.
Investigations are ongoing.
Mount Pleasant and Townhill have featured repeatedly in South Wales Police’s organised crime investigations.
A Mount Pleasant man was among four jailed for county lines drug dealing after a vehicle was stopped in Gors Avenue, while a Mount Pleasant woman received a suspended sentence as part of the ‘Scouse Ryan’ county lines operation running drugs between Liverpool and Swansea.
A Mount Pleasant resident was also convicted as an associate of a major south-west Wales drug gang that was found to possess a firearm, cocaine and cannabis.
Anyone with information about organised crime in their area is urged to contact South Wales Police on 101.
Reports can also be made anonymously via Crimestoppers online or by calling 0800 555 111.
If someone is in immediate danger or a crime is taking place, dial 999.
#gang #MountPleasant #organisedCrime #organisedCrimeGroup #SouthWalesPolice #Townhill -
CAUGHT DEALING: Townhill man who tried to outrun police found hiding behind parked car — and cocaine was on the ground beside him
A Swansea drug dealer who tried to flee from plain-clothed police officers has been jailed for three years and eight months after being caught hiding behind parked cars — with cocaine on the ground nearby.
Kian Meredith, 22, of Caradog Place, Townhill, was spotted by officers on patrol in Prince of Wales Road in Swansea, who observed what they believed was a drug deal taking place among a group of known drug users. When officers approached, the group scattered. Meredith ran towards the Dyfatty junction before being found a short time later crouching behind two parked vehicles on Greenhill Street.
On the ground near him were wraps of cocaine. When searched, officers found a mobile phone and £115 in cash.
A download of Meredith’s phone later revealed messages related to the supply of cocaine and crack cocaine over the previous three months, as well as a so-called “tick list” — a record of money owed to him by customers. He answered no comment to all questions in police interview.
Meredith had already pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and to simple possession of cocaine when he appeared at Swansea Crown Court for sentencing.
The case was made significantly more serious by Meredith’s history. He was out of prison on licence at the time of the offence, having previously been convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin and conspiracy to supply cocaine in 2023 — offences linked to the Jack line, a drugs network that was supplying significant quantities of both cocaine and heroin to users around Swansea. He received three years in a young offenders institution for those matters.
His barrister Emily Bennett told the court that Meredith had relapsed into cocaine and crack use in January this year “for no particular reason,” which had led to what she described as a “spiral” of addiction, debt and then dealing. She said his decision to run from officers when approached reflected his lack of maturity.
Ms Bennett said her client wanted to use his time in custody constructively, tackle his addiction issues, and train as a barber “so he is in a better position when he comes out of prison.”
Judge Catherine Richards said she accepted that Meredith’s life had been blighted by drugs, but said that by the age of just 22 he had been caught dealing on three separate occasions — and that the most recent offence was aggravated by the fact he had been on licence at the time. With a one-third reduction for his guilty pleas, she imposed a sentence of three years and eight months. He will serve 40% of that in custody before being released on licence.
The area where Meredith was caught has been the focus of a dedicated crackdown by South Wales Police, which has already seen crime fall 12% and anti-social behaviour drop 69% in the Dyfatty area following targeted enforcement activity.
South Wales Police Sergeant Luke Tucker said: “Kian Meredith was caught in the act while trying to peddle his poison onto the streets of Swansea. He is now going to prison for almost four years — a very costly price to pay which shows that dealing Class A drugs is just not worth it. Our officers will find you and you will go to prison.”
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Crime down 12% and anti-social behaviour down 69% as Dyfatty crackdown delivers early results
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#cocaine #DrugDealing #Dyfatty #JackLine #KianMeredith #SouthWalesPolice #SwanseaCrownCourt #Townhill
A violent revenge attack in Swansea led to lengthy prison sentences for those involved. -
https://www.europesays.com/africa/164913/ New N3 route plan shifts problem across the valley #KwaZuluNatal #KZN #n3 #news #Pietermaritzburg #SouthAfrica #TownHill #umgungundlovu
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BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE: £4.9m school boost gets underway in Townhill
A brand-new dining hall and all-weather sports pitch are being built at Townhill Community Primary School, with leaders hailing the project as a “game-changer” for pupils and families.
The investment — backed largely by the Welsh Government — aims to make sure every child can benefit from free school meals without squeezing into cramped facilities.
Right now, all pupils are entitled to a free lunch — but the school’s current kitchen and canteen simply can’t keep up.
Council leader Rob Stewart said:
“This is making a real and important difference to families throughout Swansea.”
And it’s not just about food.
The new hall will double up as a performance and community space — giving parents more room to watch school concerts and opening the doors for wider local use.
Meanwhile, a brand-new multi-use games area will give pupils — and the wider community — a place to stay active all year round.
Townhill Primary School, which was built in 1924 (Image: Swansea Council)Education boss Robert Smith said:
“This will be an exciting addition… boosting health and wellbeing during the day and beyond.”
Contractors Andrew Scott Ltd are leading the build, which is expected to take around a year.
School leaders say the investment is about more than bricks and mortar.
Headteacher Peter Owen outside Townhill Community Primary School, which is set for a £4.9m upgrade.
(Image: Swansea Council)Headteacher Peter Owen said:
“We are delighted the school and community are going to have such a superb resource.”
And governors say it marks a step towards becoming a true “community school” — with facilities used long after the final bell rings.
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#AndrewScottLtd #construction #education #freeSchoolMeals #schoolDinners #schoolMeals #SwanseaCouncil #Townhill #TownhillPrimarySchool
A milestone moment for a much‑loved member of staff. -
SWANSEA: Council to invest nearly £70m in council homes this year—part of £267m four-year plan
Millions of pounds are being earmarked to insulate and weatherproof hundreds of existing homes, making them warmer and more efficient to help reduce the cost of heating for tenants.
The spending is part of the biggest ever investment in council-owned homes for affordable rent in the city, which will see £267 million spent over the next four years.
Where the Money Is Going
Among the major projects planned for spending this year are:
£40 million is being spent on keeping council homes in communities across the city in a good state of repair, including Penyrheol, Fforesthall, Penlan, Sketty, Mayhill, and Townhill.
Within the £40m, £17 million is being set aside for more upgrades at the Dyfatty flats at Croft Street, Griffith John Street, and Clyne and Jeffreys Court.
More than £12.7 million is planned for spending on the council’s pioneering More Homes initiative, which aims to add 1,000 affordable homes for rent to its existing stock. This includes new homes being built at Brokesby Road and £1.5m for acquisitions.
More than £1.2 million will be spent on improving homes at Heol Emrys and Tudno Place, with funding also earmarked for future years to develop more affordable homes, providing estate and environmental improvements.
More than £1.8 million is going on the council’s continuing programme of improving kitchens and bathrooms.
More than £3.6 million is being spent on environmental improvements in places like Garnswllt, Townhill, West Cross, and Fforesthall.
‘Better Homes for Our Residents’
Andrea Williams, Cabinet Member for Service Improvement, said Swansea Council’s ambitious spending programme for council housing reflected its commitment to providing high-quality homes that are energy-efficient and affordable for tenants.
Cllr Andrea Williams said:
“Better homes for our residents are one of the critical building blocks of creating a better future for children, for families and for our city. They improve people’s health and affordable homes that are energy efficient help reduce poverty and together they contribute to happier communities.”
She added:
“Over the last few years there has been a huge investment worth hundreds of millions of pounds into making sure the homes we own are in good shape and fit for the future under the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. In the coming year further investment of an estimated £69m will mean hundreds of families will benefit from improvements to their homes. Money is being earmarked for other projects including electrical re-wiring and weather-proofing where needed as well as general environmental improvements.”
Supporting Local Jobs
Cllr Williams said the council’s housing projects support hundreds of local jobs and apprenticeships, so it’s a “win-win” for local communities.
Funding for the new homes and the upgrades for existing homes is coming from the rents paid by tenants, Welsh Government grants, and HRA borrowing. None of the spending is from council tax.
#CllrAndreaWilliams #ClyneCourt #councilHouseImprovements #councilHouses #CroftStreet #DyfattyFlats #Fforesthall #GriffithJohnStreet #HeolEmrys #insulateAndWeatherproofCouncilHomes #JeffreysCourt #Mayhill #MoreHomes #Penlan #Penyrheol #Sketty #SwanseaCouncil #Townhill #TudnoPlace #WestCross -
@PoliticalCartoon does that make #Townhill and #Bitterne in #Southampton an UULFZ?