Six new business units are planned on brownfield land at Port Talbot’s Harbourside, after a £4.2m award was approved last week.
At Talbot Wharf, Associated British Ports gets £5m to open up 9.1 hectares, about 13 football pitches, for the firms that will build and service floating offshore wind farms.
The two Port Talbot schemes take £9.2m of the £18.4m in seed money the Celtic Freeport has approved. The other £9.2m goes to two projects in Pembrokeshire.
Six business units at Waterside Innovation Park
Neath Port Talbot Council’s scheme at Waterside Innovation Park will cost £8.4m in all, so the Freeport money covers half.
The council says the work will clean up a large brownfield site so it can be built on and deliver the six units, as the first phase of a longer-term plan.
The £28m SWITCH carbon research hub is already rising at Harbourside, beside Port Talbot Parkway station.
Cllr Jeremy Hurley, the council’s cabinet member for climate change and economic growth, said: “This is welcome news for Port Talbot, with significant investment supporting two important developments in the area.”
He added: “Our scheme at Waterside Innovation Park will provide new business premises to help attract investment and provide space for businesses to grow.”
9.1 hectares at Talbot Wharf for the floating wind supply chain
ABP’s £5m is to unlock the Talbot Wharf land for the floating offshore wind supply chain, the Freeport says.
Floating turbines are put together on land and towed out to sea. ABP is already designing a floating wind hub at the docks with £64m of UK Government money.
Gwynt Glas, one of three floating wind farms planned for the Celtic Sea, set out plans last week to bring its cables ashore at Carmarthen Bay. Port Talbot is among the ports tipped to assemble turbines for the Celtic Sea projects.
Cllr Hurley said the Freeport had “an important role to play in our area’s future, helping to create skilled jobs and opening up supply chain opportunities for local businesses, particularly in growing industries such as floating offshore wind”.
He said: “Our priority is to ensure these opportunities translate into lasting benefits for our residents and businesses.”
The other £9.2m goes to Pembroke Port and Pembroke Dock
The Port of Milford Haven gets £7.2m for Criterion Quay at Pembroke Port, to restore marine infrastructure, add berths and create 1.7 hectares of open quayside for floating wind.
Ledwood gets £2m to upgrade its quayside in Pembroke Dock, improving access from the water for building and moving floating wind parts.
‘Moving from planning into delivery’
Chris Martin, chair of the Celtic Freeport, said: “We are now moving from planning into delivery, working with our partners to turn the Freeport’s ambitions into tangible benefits for businesses and communities.”
Secretary of State for Wales Stephen Kinnock said the UK Government’s investment in Wales’s two freeports “will deliver thousands of new jobs, drive opportunity and generate economic growth into the future”.
Adam Price, Plaid Cymru MS for Sir Gaerfyrddin and Cabinet Minister for Enterprise, Connectivity and Energy, said: “Economic growth depends on having the right infrastructure in the right places.”
The Freeport, officially launched in March last year, says it expects to attract £8.4bn of investment and create 11,500 jobs.
Getting power to new industry is a hurdle it already knows about. The Freeport is working with National Grid on ways to connect new firms sooner, in a region where even Tata’s electric arc furnace is waiting for its link.
The money comes from the UK Government through its Freeport Programme in Wales. All four awards still depend on grant conditions being agreed, including clawback rules that let the money be recovered.
For now, neither the council nor the Freeport has said when work will start at Harbourside or Talbot Wharf, or how many jobs either scheme will bring.
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