Lord Mayor's Column - 15 January 2020

As Lord Mayor one occasionally has the opportunity to officially open new and refurbished buildings and businesses. Which is how I find myself this morning in Llansamlet for the official opening of Storage Giant’s 10,000ft extension to their premises.

The self-storage business has been expanding rapidly in Swansea, in part thanks to the city’s growing student population. Students often need short-term, easy access storage facilities for items like books, furniture and sporting equipment, which they cannot leave in their accommodation during term breaks.

Not too far away from Storage Giant in Llansamlet is the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks.

Swansea was core to the global copper industry in the 19th century. The Hafod works was founded in 1810 by John Vivian, eventually employing over 1,000 people – then the largest copper works in the world. The rival Morfa works established in 1835 and the two adjacent sites combined in 1924.

Swansea University has been working with the local community and Swansea Council to develop the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks site for the last 10 years. They have recently received funding from UK Research & Innovation to develop partnerships with ‘Friends of Hafod-Morfa Copperworks’, Hafod Primary School, Pentrehafod Comprehensive School, and Crisis – the national charity for homeless people, which is also one of my Lord Mayor Charities this year.

On Thursday I’ll be at the Computational Foundry in Swansea University’s new Bay Campus, where there is a launch event for a project exploring how diverse groups of people relate to he Copperworks site and to find out more about what their visions for future development might look like.

That evening, I will be back at the Mansion House to host a Charity fundraising Quiz for my nominated Lord Mayor’s Charities, which in addition to Crisis also include Unity in Diversity and Llys Nini.