I know how upset the Spinning Around Swansea lot get when we neglect this blogsite but unfortunately for them we decide when we post and when we do not.Nevertheless it is worth breaking our unscheduled vacation to report on further investment in the City Centre that vindicates once more the strategy being pursued by the Swansea Administration and underlines the growing confidence in the City by investors.
The investment by Marks and Spencer in its City Centre store is one manifestation of this. As the Post says the planned multi-million pound transformation is being seen as a huge vote of confidence in the city centre as a retail hotspot. And then on top of this news we read that around 250 developers have contacted the Council to express and interest in working on bringing the City Centre strategy to reality. These are real developers not the fictional ones Labour told us wanted to rebuild our Leisure Centre but nobody could find any evidence of.
Peter Birch, vice-chairman and secretary of the Swansea Business Improvement District and chairman of the Swansea Independent Traders Association sums up where we are as a City:
"More is happening in Swansea now than has ever happened in my time here since 1980. There is more money being invested here than in a lot of towns and cities in Britain.
"The city stagnated for so long, but now people are concentrating on the centre again. There was a time when developers were looking at out-of-town areas, but that has stopped and they now want to be involved with the centre and to see that thriving again.
"This council has made a brave decision to get the leisure centre reopened and it is reaping the rewards from that and its vision for Swansea. I am really pleased for the city and the traders who have hung on in here through the hard times. Things are really looking up now and I am happy to be part of that."
