Swansea City Deal: Signed, sealed and the promise of 9,000 jobs to be delivered

The Prime Minister Theresa May has signed a £1.3 billion Swansea City Deal between the UK Government, local authorities and the Welsh Government, which aims to create more than 9,000 jobs in the region.

May also used the visit to Wales to pledge to bring prosperity to all parts of the UK as the Brexit vote puts renewed pressure on the Union.

The Prime Minister is carrying out talks in the devolved nations ahead of her promise to trigger Article 50 and formally start the process of withdrawing from the European Union on March 29.

Mrs May met First Minister Carwyn Jones as well as leaders in business and other sectors after arriving in Wales.

The PM said that as well as delivering the right Brexit deal for the country, she wanted to see prosperity across the UK.

A video showing the how Swansea might look following the signing of the city deal has been released.

The video shows how a number of on-going, approved and planned redevelopment projects will lead to the biggest changes in the city’s landscape for 70 years.

It's hoped the projects will generate thousands of jobs and boost the quality and variety of the city centre’s shopping, dining, leisure, urban living, business, entertainment and recreational offers.

The video starts outside the train station before working its way along High Street and Orchard Street to Castle Square, Parc Tawe and the St David’s development site. It then makes its way over to the Civic Centre development site before travelling along West Way and Kingsway.

An idea to transform Castle Square into a greener, more vibrant destination at the heart of the city centre is also included, as well as a plan to introduce an urban park and two-way traffic on Kingsway.

Other projects featured in the fly-though include Swansea University’s £450m Bay Campus, the planned £1.3bn Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s under-construction £300m Innovation Precinct in SA1.

Cllr Rob Stewart, Swansea Council Leader, said: “Thanks to the ‘Team Swansea’ approach we’ve developed alongside our partners, Swansea will soon be undergoing its biggest transformation in 70 years as we significantly improve the city for residents, open up thousands of new jobs and generate far more opportunities than ever before."