Businesses and organisations from across Neath Port Talbot got the chance to showcase their talents at a ‘Meet the Buyer’ event last week.
Morgan Ashurst who have recently been appointed as the main contractor for the Gwyn Hall redevelopment met up with over 50 people from 25 local business and organisations at the Bluebell Hotel in Neath.
Neath Port Talbot Council’s Business Services Team organised the event to introduce the new contractor to local businesses and to discuss future plans and the work needed to be completed in order to restore the historic landmark.
The Council hosted the event to encourage interaction between Morgan Ashurst and local businesses, showing the continued commitment by the Council for local businesses to gain work on local projects.
Head of Property & Regeneration, Gareth Nutt said: “Working with local businesses will be an on-going process for us and this event is just one of the first in a line of opportunities to regenerate the county borough. The Council is committed to providing opportunities for local business where public money is used to complete regeneration projects.
“We need to ensure that we work together for the regeneration of the town and a better environment.
“We are already on site at Victoria Gardens, through funding awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, restoring many of the original features, and with further private investment taking place in the town centre I am sure that we can move forward with our proposals.”
Businesses were given an informal presentation by Tom Davies, Morgan Ashurst’s area operations manager and were introduced to the on-site project manager Kevin Davies.
Tom said, “We always aim to work with local people on all our construction projects. We were extremely pleased to see so many local suppliers at the event. It gave us a fantastic opportunity to find out about all the specialist trades in the local area and we are looking forward to working with these companies in the future.”
They were briefed on how the tender for the Gwyn Hall was won aswell as assuring them that work is still available for local businesses for this and other future projects.
The contractor informed the businesses what type of work was required to restore the historic Grade 2 listed building to its original state. This includes using specialist trades to repair and introduce further stone works, groundworks, underpinning, and also digging out an orchestra pit for the main auditorium.
Other works required were to erect a steel frame which will sit inside the main building, the fitting of the main auditorium which will benefit from state of the art sound and lighting, have removable seating and oak flooring. The 3rd floor will comprise of a 70 seat state of the art cinema fitted with high end vision and acoustic equipment.
