' Swansea 15 years behind Cardiff as a City '

Swansea '10 to 15 years behind Cardiff', think tank says


BBC

Thursday 29th June 2017

Swansea's success as a city is 10 to 15 years behind Cardiff, the chief executive of a think tank has claimed.

Andrew Carter from The Centre for Cities said the "confused" city had "some hard thinking to do".

He was speaking off the back of Week In Week Out programme Cardiff's Growing Pains that looked at how Cardiff's infrastructure is coping with the city's growth.

Swansea council's leader Rob Stewart said the comments were "out of touch".

He urged Mr Carter to visit Swansea so he could show him work that is under way.

He added the Swansea Bay City Region deal would provide a "major boost" for the area.

In March, Prime Minister Theresa May signed off the deal and said she wanted Wales "at the forefront of science and innovation".

The plan is expected to create more than 9,000 jobs and trigger almost £1.3bn of investment in south west Wales.

Prince Charles speaks to Swansea students
Prince Charles officially opened Swansea University's Bay Campus in July 2016
But Mr Carter said the city had issues to overcome.

"The Swansea Bay Campus and expansion of the university is an undeniably good thing for the city but the question is, how do you knit that back into the city itself?

"If you go into the city centre it's still a very confused situation - what is it for?

"Creating conditions to capture new work, new activity, create living environments for some of those high-skilled workers is going to be a bigger challenge for Swansea and I still think they are slightly confused about what the city is for.


More courage and ambition will be needed on investment in Cardiff as the city grows, Andrew Carter says
"They are still 10-15 years behind Cardiff in thinking about what the city is for and how they respond and the policy choices they make."

The Centre for Cities gathers and compares data on more than 60 British cities.

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What is the Swansea Bay City Region Deal?

£1.3bn of private and public money to be spent over 15 years
£241m from UK and Welsh governments, £360m from the public sector and universities, and another £673m in private investment
Four councils - Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea - taking part
11 projects including: a "cloud" enterprise zone to attract data companies; using the internet to improve health diagnostics; a steel science centre
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Mr Stewart said there was £6bn worth of public and private sector developments either already happening or in the pipeline for Swansea.

He pointed to the planned revamp of Parc Tawe, new city centre student accommodation development Icon 21 and the planned transformation of Kingsway.

i am originally from Cardiff, but part of my life i lived and worked in Swansea for 25 years, in fact I married a Swansea girl. There are certain parts of Swansea which are okay, especially if you head west towards Mumbles. And the people are okay, I used to have a lot of banter about supporting the Bluebirds. Ii now live in the Carmarthen area, but travel to Swansea now and again as my wife works for the NHS in Swansea.
But we readily admit Swansea is a dump compared to Cardiff, especially the main street the Kingsway and High Street by the Railway Station.
In the 50's Swansea was a nice little town all new white buildings in the centre(bombed badly in the second world war same as Cardiff)
The trouble is and was that Swansea buildings etc were never maintained properly. All down to the Council and Planners and dont forget the new one way system when they introduced the " Bendy buses" Disaster and now the buses have gone what a waste of public money.

The town more like thirty years behind and the people twenty five, I would say.

As the famous quote says - A Pretty Shitty City.

Lots of bad architecture post war done on the cheap which is why Swansea looks so bad. Cardiff docks was badly hit like Swansea centre, Cardiff centre and the bay did retain some quality historic buildings though and the centre is growing nicely and in a modern style down to John Lewis etc...Swansea on the other hand looks shabby. It almost seems unfair that Cardiff is getting new buildings and 1000's of jobs in the central square development. Swansea could be a great city given its location but I just can't see it happening as there council get more desperate they make more mistakes, like they always have.

................. Cue roathy!

15 years behind??

...and the rest. They don't even come close to comparison. Cardiff is my favourite city in Wales by a mile.

Thankfully I support football clubs and not cities

We got the Gower though

I live abroad but had to return to Wales due to a family bereavement. I stayed in Swansea for 6 weeks. It's a real dump. Narrow streets litter everywhere and horrendous traffic and parking. People were nice though.
I visited Cardiff center for the first time in About 35 years. I was amazed. It has to be the nicest city center in the country. its light years ahead of Swansea.

Think tanks don't know shit - the town centre Tesco caused some considerable excitement amongst the locals when it opened.

Its not a competition though, of course Swansea is behind Cardiff as a City, Cardiff is the Capital, Swansea isn't simple as that.

It would be a bit strange if Swansea was a better City than Cardiff or not behind Cardiff in what they have etc.

As it goes, as a second City I personally think Swansea is decent, its got a plenty going for it and is better than a lot of big English towns and some City's.

Far more constructive to focus on what they have got as opposed to what they haven't, Football aside, I don't mind the place.

We got the Gower though

Jesus wept

Considering the amount of money thats been pumped into Cardiff over the past decade I'd be very surprised there wasn't a gap .Cardiff is great if you like shopping and watch the odd international but if it's down to nightlife and leisure time activities then theres little to chose from either iimo Swansea probably edges it because of the diversity it offers .It's only really important to those who think it is .

Considering the amount of money thats been pumped into Cardiff over the past decade I'd be very surprised there wasn't a gap .Cardiff is great if you like shopping and watch the odd international but if it's down to nightlife and leisure time activities then theres little to chose from either iimo Swansea probably edges it because of the diversity it offers .It's only really important to those who think it is .

Fair point. Not been to brown town for years but from memory th leisure facilities were very good (leisure centre, cinema etc). Cardiff bay is fantastic for a day out. Pubs, restaurants, boat trips etc. Have no desire to go to Swansea as I live an hour away and have Cardiff on my new doorstep

It's so none descript as a city I find it really boring, I've a few friends that way and omfg it's a mess of none thought out structures - the Liberty for one couldn't be anymore user unfriendly the access to it is shocking. And then the city centre could do with a remodel - I was in Newport the other day driving through and I noticed the fairly new eating area and I assume shopping complex - that's already 10 times better than the tripe Swansea has.

It's so none descript as a city I find it really boring, I've a few friends that way and omfg it's a mess of none thought out structures - the Liberty for one couldn't be anymore user unfriendly the access to it is shocking. And then the city centre could do with a remodel - I was in Newport the other day driving through and I noticed the fairly new eating area and I assume shopping complex - that's already 10 times better than the tripe Swansea has.

Ive recently moved to Newport and the area your talking about is called friars walk which has a dozen restraunts, cinema, bowling and the usual shops such as debenhams, jd sports etc. In fairness though Newport is in need of more investment. Places like Pill and Maindee are rundown and full of druggies. Some money has been pumped in but more is needed.