Swansea Council’s Cabinet has now agreed that the Authority will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with Swansea University to explore regeneration opportunities for the site.
The Hafod Copperworks site is of international importance in terms of its industrial heritage and Swansea’s development over the past 200 years. The site contains 12 Grade II listed buildings and structures.
Swansea Council adopted the Tawe Riverside Corridor Strategy at the end of 2006 that includes the Hafod Copperworks Site.
It identified a mixed-use development that would preserve and protect heritage structures and capitalise on proximity to the Liberty Stadium by introducing a hotel and restaurant or bar uses that would bring economic vitality back to the riverfront.
The site was then put out to the marketplace and Swansea Council is now entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with Swansea University and will work with them as a preferred development partner for the site initially for the next 12 months.
The Council and the University will work on a feasibility study to jointly explore the potential to preserve and develop the historic buildings on the site, to review the masterplan for the site and to investigate sources of funding.
Swansea University also sees potential to develop some of the historic buildings on site into a significant educational and research facility.
Cllr Gareth Sullivan, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration and Planning, said: “It’s long been our aspiration to regenerate the historic Hafod Copperworks site but economic conditions have made it difficult to attract a partner that will meet our aspirations for the site.
“Entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with Swansea University gives an opportunity to explore the feasibility of our aspirations for the site with the University. It could also lead to a phased regeneration of the site with the University potentially occupying one of the buildings as an educational facility.
“A Swansea 2020 Strategy has been devised to guide the regeneration of the economy over the next 10 years. One of its key aims is to develop the knowledge economy and this could add to it.”
Professor Huw Bowen, who is leading the project team on behalf of Swansea University, said: “Exploring ways of developing the Hafod Copperworks site for the benefit of future generations offers us the chance – perhaps the last chance – of ensuring that visible signs of Swansea’s immensely important industrial achievements are not lost forever.
“It’s especially appropriate that the Memorandum of Understanding will be signed during the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Lower Swansea Valley Project. That path-breaking regeneration project showed what can be achieved when universities and local authorities work in close partnership with one another.
“It’s now hoped that the heritage-led feasibility study can find ways of maximising the economic, social, and educational potential offered by the Hafod site.”
Swansea Council is also working with Swansea University to mark the 200th anniversary of the first copper ingot rolling out of the Hafod Copperworks.
A festival of talks, tours, activities and information is planned for Saturday March 5 to raise awareness of the significance of the Welsh copper industry, its heritage and the place of copper in our lives today.
Events will last from 10am to 4pm and are free to attend. The National Waterfront Museum, Swansea Museum, the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea Central Library, Landore Social Club and Swansea Museum’s Collections Centre in Landore are among the venues where events will be held. Riverside walks will also be led by expert guides and other events will be held at Swansea University in Singleton Abbey, the Egypt Centre, the School of Engineering and the University Library.
Have a look at www.copperday.org.uk for more information on Swansea Copper Day.
