by Andrew Guilford | Mar 28, 2022 | Buy Regional, Circular Economy, Creative Economy, Development Investment, Features, Travel Transport Tourism, Well-being Region
At 4theRegion we want to ensure South West Wales is a welcoming and safe region where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and progress fulfilling careers. Building cohesive communities is about developing neighbourhoods, social spaces and workplaces where difference is welcomed and celebrated. This involves moving beyond narratives of ‘us’ and ‘them’ towards a greater sense of trust and a shared sense of belonging.
How can businesses play a role in supporting cohesive communities? (Pic: fauxels)
Building a more cohesive society is everybody’s business. We are all part of the social fabric, the strength of which can be an important influence on our wellbeing as communities and individuals. We all have a responsibility to build and maintain the relationships, connections and understandings which make up that social fabric. Cohesion is a shared objective, in which every person, community and organisation has a role to play.
So how can we support social cohesion?
A new report from Belong looks at just that! Everybody’s Business, produced in conjunction with the Intercultural Cities Network, sets out how businesses can play a role in supporting cohesive communities, and how local authorities can support them in doing this. The report draws its findings from a series of roundtable conversations with local authorities and businesses in a number of towns and cities across the UK, including Swansea.
Belong use the term ‘social cohesion’ to describe how well people from different backgrounds mix, interact and get along with each other. Those differences can be ethnicity, faith, social class, age, gender, sexuality, or a range of other differences that might potentially divide us.
There’s lots of potential to support community cohesion within a business! Research shows that workplaces can provide the opportunity for people from different backgrounds to connect in a way that leads to more positive attitudes towards diversity and higher levels of social cohesion. If you work in a diverse workplace you’re more likely to have friends from different backgrounds, although your interactions will need to be more than passing for the effects to extend beyond the workplace.
By their very nature, some businesses represent vital social infrastructure providing opportunities for people to meet and mix across different boundaries. And the experience of the pandemic has made clear the vital importance of these shared spaces! As ‘third places’, other than home and work, they provide a venue where members of the community can interact with one another informally, and where collective space can be provided for community initiatives such as charitable fundraising.
So how can you as a business help maximise the positive impact you have?
First and foremost, recruiting a workforce which fully reflects the diversity of local communities, across all functions and levels of seniority, is necessary for any business that wants to support social cohesion.
As a business, you can promote an inclusive culture through cohesion aware management. This means creating a climate of openness and trust, ensuring demographic attributes (ethnicity, gender, sexuality etc) do not overlap with functional roles and supporting meaningful interactions between people of all backgrounds across the workforce, are key elements of workplaces that support cohesion.
You can enable minorities and diverse groups to lead innovation. Ensuring that innovation is led by diverse teams and people from under represented groups enables better understanding of the needs of communities and increases awareness of market and product opportunities that might otherwise be missed.
You can invest in social infrastructure in the local community. What can you do to support welcoming, inclusive community spaces? This could be in the course of your everyday operations or, for example, through the innovative use of your commercial property.
Businesses can also deliver added social value by supporting community organisations and initiatives which build cohesive communities.
You can do this by partnering with a local community group or charity. Imagine if more businesses were regularly twinned with a local community group or charity as part of an ongoing relationship? This could involve sponsorship or support in kind, and would help deepen the connections between a business and the community around it.
You can provide direct support through employee volunteering. You can enable more employee volunteering which aids charities, community groups and hubs supporting community life and bringing people together. This helps to connect employees to the community and to people from different backgrounds.
You can localise your supply chain. By applying the ‘think local’ principle to as much of their supply chain as possible, businesses can extend more opportunities to the local community, and help to strengthen the networks of social and economic ties that can support cohesive communities.
And, wherever possible, you should evaluate the impact of work that you’re doing to support social cohesion.
It’s great to see the report citing our members Gower Gas and Oil as example of what businesses in the region are already doing! The heating services company has led a variety of initiatives to address social isolation. The #DontDanceAlone social media campaign, in partnership with The Wave and Swansea Sound, has raised awareness of isolation amongst older people and helped raise money for older people’s charities. Gower Gas and Oil also help coordinate the Gower Isolation Support Group, which helps ensure that isolated older people are visited regularly, with a view to ensuring positive social and health outcomes, which was particularly important during lockdown.
And what can local authorities do to support businesses to do all this? The report says they can provide leadership by being clear about how businesses can support local cohesion objectives and playing a coordinating role in helping them do so. They can incentivise businesses to act through highlighting cohesion outcomes in their approach to procurement and social value, and by recognising businesses that do this well. And they create an evaluation framework based on local needs, providing a robust and rigorous framework for evaluating cohesion oriented activity that businesses carry out, including shared measures and reporting.
Everyone has a role to play in building and maintaining cohesive communities. And it is particularly good to see a report which focusses on the often under appreciated role businesses can play in supporting social cohesion. If you’d like to find out more about how businesses can be a force for good, join us at the Introbiz Expo on April 7th!
4theRegion is an alliance of people, businesses and organisations across South West Wales, who love where we live and want our region to flourish. We connect people, share good news and enable collaboration, through our forums, events, projects and comms, for a future that promotes the wellbeing of people and planet. Support our movement and be part of the solution!
by Andrew Guilford | Mar 21, 2022 | Circular Economy, Features, Travel Transport Tourism
Last week 4theRegion hosted our City Centre Conference. We’re so proud to have been the first major exhibitor at the new Swansea Arena – which looks amazing! We had over a hundred and twenty exhibitors and over two thousand five hundred people registered to attend.
We all have a part to play in the transition to a greener, healthier, more equal, more integrated, more accessible and more affordable transport system (Pic: MART PRODUCTION)
Even before our conference had taken place interest in Swansea Arena was already skyrocketing. They expect their calendar to be pretty much full for the next six months, but say they’ve barely scratched the surface in terms of the potential for city wide events. These events would involve the arena working with hotels and other venues across the city. We’d see the hotels fully booked and Swansea really put on the map for conferences!
Of course it isn’t just conference goers that we’ll be welcoming to our wonderful region. An integrated, sustainable travel network is essential to prosperity and wellbeing, with tourism being a key economic driver for South West Wales. And we all have a part to play in the transition to a greener, healthier, more equal, more integrated, more accessible and more affordable transport system. We need to work collaboratively to address the challenges we face, to create flourishing local places, connected by inclusive and sustainable transport that meets the needs of businesses, serves communities, and improves wellbeing across the region.
So how do we get there?
How about a rail network integrated with bus routes, ticketing and timetables, so that you can seamlessly switch between trains and buses to get to your destination? This is the vision for the Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro. It’ll also offer an enhanced rail network with new stations serving Swansea’s outlying communities and a significantly increased number of trains stopping at stations every hour. An extension of the much publicised South Wales Metro, developed for Cardiff and the surrounding area, we’ve been told the Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro will start to deliver visible results this year.
Another key component of the Metro are plans to introduce hydrogen buses as part of a pilot scheme in Swansea Bay and Pembrokeshire. And these aren’t the only clean solution to road travel in the region. Eight electric buses will replace diesel buses on the route between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth by the end of this year.
But of course it isn’t just about public transport. How do we travel more sustainably as individuals and businesses? For some people the solution might be an e-bike. You pedal it like a regular bike but it has a battery to get you more easily up hills or to enable you to cover longer distances. But how do you know if one would be right for you? Well how about a free trial? If you live in Swansea, Sustrans could offer you a four week trial of an e-bike absolutely free!
But an even more exciting travel solution is an e-cargo bike! If you’re a business in Swansea business you could be eligible for a three month trial to see if one of them could be right for you. This too is absolutely free!
Could an e-cargo bike benefit your business? Research has found e-cargo bikes make deliveries about 60% faster than vans in city centres. Vans can obviously travel along clear stretches of road much faster, but they get slowed down by congestion and have to spend time looking for parking spaces. E-cargo bikes, on the other hand, can bypass traffic jams, take shortcuts through streets closed to through traffic and ride directly to the customer’s door. On average, e-cargo bikes will drop off ten parcels an hour, compared to six parcels for vans. They also cut carbon emissions by 90% compared with diesel vans, and by a third compared to electric vans. Recent estimates suggest that up to 51% of all freight journeys in European cities could be replaced by e-cargo bikes.
And what else do we want to see?
We think transport should be regarded as a universal basic service – like healthcare and education. Low cost, or better still free, public transport is central to creating a healthier, more equal, more prosperous region and achieving Wales’ climate emergency commitments. We also need much more infrastructure for charging electric vehicles across the region, but we’re not sure private electric cars are the answer or will, in themselves, be enough to address the climate crisis or transport inequality. So how about EV car share projects, which would be supported in communities and by employers? This would ensure everyone has access to a car, without actually needing to own one.
An integrated, sustainable travel network is essential to prosperity and wellbeing. At 4theRegion, we’ve been thinking a lot about how we can get there. Read our Transport Manifesto to find out more.
Help create a happier, healthier region with a thriving economy! Your support and involvement makes our work possible! We welcome you to join 4theRegion, to demonstrate your commitment to South West Wales and to access our support.
by Andrew Guilford | Feb 2, 2022 | Buy Regional, Circular Economy, Development Investment, Features, Well-being Region
When the coronavirus pandemic hit global economies, governments pledged to rebuild, create jobs and spark growth. But many people recognised we can’t just go back to doing things the way we did before. So what would our rebuilt economy look like?
We need to think about the problem of “growth”. Traditional ideas of economic recovery have focussed on growth, but wouldn’t it be better for us to be aiming for wellbeing, whether or not the economy grows?
Economist Kate Raworth has said “Mainstream economics views endless GDP growth as a must, but nothing in nature grows forever and the economic attempt to buck that trend is raising tough questions in high-income but low-growth countries. That’s because today we have economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive. What we need are economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow. That radical flip in perspective invites us to become agnostic about growth and to explore how our economies—which are currently financially, politically and socially addicted to growth—could learn to live with or without it.”
Green recovery means accelerating development along a more sustainable path. Natural Resources Wales says this means reducing carbon emissions, increasing resilience to climate change, reversing the decline in biodiversity, connecting people and nature and tackling unsustainable levels of production and consumption, while ensuring job creation, skills development, new markets and vulnerable groups are prioritised.
The region will need £4.3bn in investment by 2035 to tackle climate change. We’ll need to reduce carbon emissions by 58% in the domestic heat and power sector, 56% in the commercial and industrial sector and 51% in road transport. This means more wind and solar farms, more electric cars, a tidal lagoon, and the creation of around sixteen thousand new jobs!
Some of the most exciting proposals so far are in marine energy. The Blue Eden project, led by DST Innovations, would see a battery factory, data centre and thousands of homes powered by a new tidal lagoon. It would create two and half thousand permanent jobs. Meanwhile, Hiraeth Energy and Magnora Offshore Wind just announced proposals for two offshore windfarms in the Celtic Sea, which could power half the homes in Wales.
We need to move away from just making, using and disposing things, and instead conserve resources and ensure long term sustainability.
Ministry of Furniture recently fitted out the WLGA’s new offices with chairs made from recycled PET plastic bottles and desks, lockers and planters recycled from the WLGA’s legacy furniture! They also provided new 100% biodegradable bar stools made from hemp and resin.
The Welsh Government has pledged to use more Welsh wool as insulation, after it dropped in price during the pandemic. Wool insulation also forms part of a project by J.G. Hale Construction and SO Modular to build and retrofit flats in Aberavon. Using innovative insulation materials doesn’t stop with wool, they’re also using mushrooms and wood fibre!
Would you like your own tree?
Trees are great! They give us shade, clean our air, capture carbon and support biodiversity. They also provide timber, which is a more sustainable than traditional building materials like cement. The Welsh Government has announced that every household in Wales will get a free tree to plant. At 4theRegion, we welcome the commitment to more tree planting and recognise the importance of ensuring the right trees are planted in the right places.
And what about food?
We once had a thriving oyster trade, which gave Oystermouth its name. The population collapsed in the twentieth century, but now millions of oysters are being put on the seabed in Swansea Bay, in a process likened to growing a forest. In addition to being food, oysters store carbon and improve water quality.
New oyster bars are exciting, but we want to see affordable, nutritious, locally produced sustainable food available to everyone. Currently only 1% of urban green space is used for allotments, but research shows urban and under utilised green spaces could produce nearly 40% of the UK’s fresh fruit and vegetables! And urban food production is just as productive as conventional farming. Obviously we don’t want to see our parks ploughed up, but there is clearly land in towns and cities where we can grow useful amounts of fruit and vegetables. There are already plans to develop a “farm” near Morriston Hospital. Giving local people the opportunity to grow and eat healthy locally sourced food will help reduce pressures on the health service. It would also reduce the hospital’s carbon footprint, with fresh food literally coming from across the road!
What about jobs and skills?
Retrofitting, for example, requires electricians, plumbers, surveyors and builders. What if all contracts included a condition to take on apprenticeships? This would provide real life experience in areas like renewable energy, retrofitting, energy and water efficient technologies, and building techniques using non-traditional materials.
Last year, nearly six hundred and fifty homes in Swansea benefitted from the largest energy retrofit scheme of its kind in the UK, as part of a partnership between Pobl Group and Sero. It meant the community could generate up to 60% of its electricity requirements, reducing energy bills and carbon emissions! A wider roll out will see seven thousand homes retrofitted and three thousand three hundred homes built as “Homes as Power Stations”.
In the past, we have aimed at growth, whether it creates wellbeing or not. Instead we should be aiming for wellbeing (especially in light of the Well-being of Future Generations Act), whether or not the economy grows. Green recovery means we can reduce our carbon emissions, reverse the decline in biodiversity and tackle unsustainable levels of production and consumption while creating jobs, developing skills and protecting vulnerable groups and communities.
Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming conference on green recovery! Join our mailing list to be the first to know.
by Andrew Guilford | Dec 7, 2021 | Circular Economy, Development Investment, Travel Transport Tourism
People are being given the chance to help shape the revamp of Carmarthen town centre’s bus station.
Carmarthenshire County Council, working with transport engineering group Atkins, has secured funding to improve and enhance the bus station in Blue Street.
Feedback from investigations and user surveys show that the existing bus shelters are too small and do not provide sufficient shelter for waiting passengers.
These are being replaced with two new continuous shelters to provide better weather protection and ‘green-roof’ canopies to help capture carbon and attract bees and butterflies.
A small number of hornbeam trees that are constrained by the current shelters will need to be removed, however a larger range of new trees and ornamental shrubbery will be planted to compensate and add more greenery to the Blue Street area.
Further improvements will include the widening of the central reserve and enhanced landscaping of the area to bring people closer to nearby shops and businesses.
The council and Atkins are now seeking public views to help them shape final design proposals.
Members of the public, town centre businesses and stakeholders, public transport operators and users, and anyone else with an interest in the scheme, is being invited to provide feedback on the plans and ask questions about the scheme.
Cllr Hazel Evans, Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “Encouraging people to use public transport and sustainable travel options is a key priority for the council.
“These improvements will not only enhance the bus station but also support our commitment to tackling climate change by introducing more green infrastructure, helping capture carbon emissions and attract a diversity of wildlife.
“The work ties in with other town centre improvements to encourage people into town and provide more safe space for people and businesses as part of our post Covid-19 economic recovery plan.
“A few small trees that are currently constrained will need to be removed as part of these works, but we look forward to bringing the county’s first green roof bus shelters to Carmarthen and planting more trees than we are removing to capture more carbon emissions than the current bus station can.”
Construction is due to start in January and will take around three months to complete.
The council and Atkins will work with local businesses to ensure minimal disruption around delivery times and peak periods, with parking and loading bays maintained throughout the works.
Signage and information will be posted in advance and during the works to redirect buses and passengers to temporary stops just around the corner in Lammas Street, near the Rose and Crown.
People can view and feedback on the proposals by visiting www.carmarthenshire.gov.wales.
Comments and questions will help inform the final design scheme and timing of the works.
Carmarthenshire County Council
by Andrew Guilford | Dec 6, 2021 | Circular Economy, Development Investment
New and refurbished schools, the major redevelopment of Neath’s town centre, the building of a self powering technology centre to attract new jobs and investment and the nearly completed Plaza Cinema project in Port Talbot.
Bay Technology Centre (CGI) (Image: Neath Port Talbot Council)
These are just some of the exciting projects contained in a progress report on the delivery of Neath Port Talbot Council’s £82.4m 2021/22 capital programme given to members of the council’s Cabinet in November.
Capital projects are generally major schemes which are either new build, acquisition of land or property, lease of property, the refurbishment of an existing building or the purchase of new pieces of equipment.
In the current financial year, the council has been undertaking projects including:
Progressing the council’s 21st Century schools programme:
- Cefn Saeson Comprehensive – Completing and opening of a new replacement 11-16 School (ahead of schedule) in the Cimla area. The school was opened to pupils in June 2021.
- Abbey Primary – Continuing the construction of a new primary school to replace the current Abbey Primary which is based across three sites in Neath Abbey, Skewen and Longford.
- Ysgol Gymraeg Ystalyfera Phase 3 – Progressing the addition of a new build block comprising six extra classrooms and 3G rugby pitch provision.
Continuing the council’s regeneration programme:
- Moving ahead with the redevelopment of Neath Town Centre including a new leisure centre and gym, modern library and retail facilities.
- Making progress with developing Harbourside, the Port Talbot former dockland area destined to become an attractive site for new businesses, residents and visitors.
- The Plaza Cinema – The redevelopment of the former cinema which inspired movie stars such as Richard Burton, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Michael Sheen into a community hub with a café, gym, office space, hall, multi-purpose rooms, a conference area, digital recording studio and shops.
- The Bay Technology Centre – A self powering 25,000sq ft building of modern office and laboratory space, located on one of Wales’ premier Business Parks – the Baglan Energy Park – alongside the M4 in the heart of South Wales. Close to completion, it will host different size units for start-up companies, indigenous businesses and inward investors looking for a base to set up and grow their operations.
The capital programme also includes :
- Further investment of £3m into Disabled Facility Grants to assist people to live at home and investment of over £3m in Schools Capital Maintenance and Highways and Engineering Maintenance improvements.
- Redevelopment works at the Hillside Secure Unit in Neath.
- Remodelling of the Council’s Waste Facility at Crymlyn Burrows as a Transfer Station with enhanced recycling capacity and facilities to accommodate the Council’s expanding recycling operation.
Cllr Carol Clement-Williams, Neath Port Talbot Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance, said: “It’s a tribute to all involved that these dynamic, major projects have been worked on throughout the pandemic and will now provide a major boost to our economy as we prepare to meet the challenges of the post-Covid 19 era.”
The cabinet formally gave its backing the 2021/22 Capital Programme and commended it to the full council for final approval.
Plaza Cinema project (Image: Neath Port Talbot Council)
Neath Port Talbot Council
by Andrew Guilford | Dec 2, 2021 | Circular Economy, Travel Transport Tourism
The historic turbine house located in Margam Country Park has been restored to once again provide electricity for the Margam Estate.
Turbine House, Margam Country Park (Image: NPT Council)
The Turbine house was built in 1891 for Emily Charlotte Talbot, who commissioned the development of a hydro-electric scheme powered by a nearby fishpond. The original turbine generated enough electricity to power 400 lamps. It is thought Margam Castle was the second domestic dwelling to have electricity in Britain at that time.
During the 1950s, the original turbine was removed and taken to South Africa. The replacement turbine has now been fully restored after being neglected for many years.
The restored turbine can now produce approximately 25KW of renewable energy which will be used to power the buildings on the Margam Estate, including the prestigious on-site wedding venue, The Orangery.
The hydro-electric scheme creates no emissions while in service and any unspent energy will be fed back to the National Grid. The project will bring savings to the operation of the country park, reduce the carbon footprint and provide an educational resource for local residents, visitors and schools.
Cllr Peter Rees, Neath Port Talbot Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Culture, said: “This project neatly combines part of Margam’s history with the council’s modern day Decarbonisation and Renewable Energy (DARE) strategy and I’d like to thank everyone involved in bringing this valuable renewable energy source back to life.”
The turbine restoration project was overseen by Neath Port Talbot Council, with support from Cadw and the Friends of Margam Country Park who worked closely with Heidra, the company responsible for restoring the ancient turbine.
Steve Ritchie from Heidra said: “Heidra was delighted to be asked by Neath Port Talbot Council to refurbish the 1920s hydro-electric system at Margam Country Park. The turbine, which originally powered the castle electrics before the National Grid existed, has now been upgraded with a modern control and efficient electric generator to supply both heat and clean green electricity to power the Park.”
In addition to housing the turbine, the building will also be used as a workshop and exhibition space for the Friends of Margam Park.
The turbine is open to the public to view, which will help promote and give an insight into the important development of modern-day renewable energy generators.
Fishpond, Margam Country Park (Image: NPT Council)
Neath Port Talbot Council
