GOING PLACES
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Twenty Two: 22/12/2019 When organisations consider committing investment and employment opportunities to a region, there are key economic building blocks they want to see in place. High on everyone’s list is transport...
BUCCANEERS AND BURIED GOLD
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Twenty One: 21/12/2019 Treasure Island is one of the most frequently adapted novels ever written. To date there have been sixteen movie versions, including one featuring the Muppets. It takes boldness and creativity to...
THE MORNING AFTER
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Twenty: 20/12/2019 Welcome to Black Friday, the final Friday before Christmas and traditionally a night when we over-indulge and paint the town red. Swansea city centre will be buzzing tonight. How many heads will be buzzing...
HEROES AND LEGENDS
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Nineteen: 19/12/2019 A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a franchise was born that would revolutionise not only popular cinema but also the memorabilia industry. Today, 42 years after Luke Skywalker’s first encounter...
Plans submitted for a 100-bed hotel and multi-use conference and events venue at Milford Waterfront
Significant plans have been revealed by the Port of Milford Haven for the build of a hotel and separate conference and events venue at Milford Waterfront in Milford Haven, following the submission of formal planning applications to Pembrokeshire County Council today...
Green light for Pontardawe ‘carbon zero’ village
Plans for a new housing estate with 35 carbon neutral homes in Pontardawe have been approved by members of Neath Port Talbot Council’s Planning Committee. Zero carbon housebuilder Sero Homes aims to build the properties on land at Rhydyfro which has been allocated for...
YOU’RE HIRED
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Eighteen: 18/12/2019 Tonight sees one of the TV highlights of the year, as the fifteenth series of The Apprentice comes to a close. As with any reality TV show the contestants often seem to have been showing off for the...
YOU’RE WELCOME
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Seventeen: 17/12/2019 Statistics can be misleading, but not always. Some numbers paint a clear picture, and not a pretty one. 15 million tonnes of food is wasted by the food industry in Britain each year. This supply chain...
FOR EVERYONE
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Sixteen: 16/12/2019 There are cities, in the UK and around the world, in which art is inaccessible to many residents. Many of these cities are famous for their art and artists, but they fail to include and inspire the wider...
MAKING IT
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Fifteen: 15/12/2019 At a time of year when we’re all decorating our homes and choosing last minute gifts, why not think outside the box when it comes to our choices? Yes, we can click a button and order the same generic...
LITTLE AND LARGE
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Fourteen: 14/12/2019 A Conservative government was elected in the same year that the Swansea Little Theatre Group began performing, but Boris Johnson was nowhere to be found. The year was 1924, the Prime Minister was Stanley...
FRIDAY THE 13TH
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Thirteen: 13/12/2019 Next May sees the 40th anniversary of the release of the ground-breaking horror movie Friday the 13th. It was a low budget success, filmed not in Hollywood but on the streets of New Jersey. It made far...
Swansea company brings intelligent, connected lighting to local businesses
Swansea facilities management company DRS FM Services has formed a partnership with international lighting company Philips Lighting to supply and fit its unique flexible, energy saving lighting systems to commercial and office buildings. Engineers from DRS have been...
GAME ON
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Twelve: 12/12/2019 The rise of online gaming has been well documented. There are currently 200 million online gamers in Western Europe and a similar number in North America. Latin America has over 230 million players, and the...
2020 VISION
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Eleven: 11/12/2019 From today there are 20 days to 2020. Twenty days to the beginning of a new decade. What do you want the new era to be, for yourself and your community? What’s your 2020 vision? Swansea has both vision and...
Ministry Graphics grows with investment in new hires, new equipment and larger premises
A Swansea Valley company that specialises in sign and print systems, large-scale graphics for commercial use and interior design, is expanding by making several key hires and investing in new equipment. Ministry Graphics, which previously traded as BOW Design, has...
THE EQUALIZER
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Ten: 10/12/2019 For those of us who have easy access to technology, every new breakthrough is a source of excitement. Faster ways to communicate. More efficient, cost-effective ways to share our skills and services. It’s a...
A QUARTER OF A MILLION REASONS
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Nine: 09/12/2019 When Patrick Glavee arrived in Swansea from Ireland in 2017 he quickly found outlets for his creative talent. Using BA Graphic Design studies at he University of Wales Trinity St David as a springboard, he...
DIAMONDS
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Eight: 08/12/2019 For something to remain fresh and vibrant after sixty years is quite an achievement. Tonight at the Brangwyn Hall, the Swansea Philharmonic Choir will give their rendition of Bach’s B Minor Mass. It’s the...
OPENING DAY
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Seven: 07/12/2019 In the 108 years since the Glynn Vivian Gallery opened, it’s showcased the work of artists including Thomas Gainsborough, William Blake and Claude Monet as well as the cream of local talent. That tradition...
NO PLACE FOR DINOSAURS
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Six: 06/12/2019 For many of us, the focal point of Christmas lunch three weeks from now will be a lovingly roasted turkey. For Britain’s 600,000 vegans, though, it will be a different story. Over the past decade the number of...
INCLUDED
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Five: 05/12/2019 It matters how we treat our guests, as individuals and as a community. When they tell us they’ve been made to feel welcome, it’s something to be proud of. One in twenty Welsh residents and one in ten Swansea...
Fundraise launched to secure Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon planning permission in perpetuity
£1.2m sought to retain for the UK the option of up to 25GW of tidal power General Election 2019 set to shape project’s delivery pathway Tidal Power Plc has today launched a £1.2 million fundraise to enable the conclusion of works to secure in perpetuity the planning...
THAT’S THE WAY IT CRUMBLES
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Four: 04/12/2019 It may not quite have the cachet of Christmas Day or Valentines Day, but the fourth of December is National Cookie Day. This isn’t a long-standing tradition – it’s barely three decades old – but those of us...
HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Three: 03/12/2019 Plastic was the mid-20th century’s miracle product. Inexpensive, strong, durable and malleable, with almost unlimited applications. Since the 1950s we’ve produced over 8 billion metric tonnes of it. And of...
A NEW KARDOMAH GANG
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day Two: 02/12/2019 If you’re walking through Castle Square today you’ll pass between the Big Screen that delivers 21st century advertising and entertainment, and the building remains that offer multiple links to our cultural...
IN FOCUS
Swansea Creative Focus Advent Calendar Day One: 01/12/2019 What’s your vision for Swansea? A place of creativity? A place of beauty? A place of aspiration? That’s the city we know and love. It’s the city with the drive and accomplishment to step into the next decade...
Celebrating Creative Swansea This Christmas
4theRegion Changemakers have launched a new collaboration to connect, champion and support creative talent in the city centre! Swansea Creative Focus is kicking off with an Advent Calendar of daily stories about Creative Swansea. You can catch the series on our...
AB Glass praised for transforming Dylan Thomas School
Aluminium manufacturing and installation company AB Glass has been praised for its work renewing the windows at Dylan Thomas School, Swansea. The award-winning Swansea-based company installed the windows in the school’s main corridor just in time for the winter. As...
AB Glass celebrates one-year anniversary of its Access Control Division
A year after launching its new Access Control Division, award-winning aluminium manufacturing and installation company AB Glass is celebrating the success of the venture. The company invested a six-figure amount into the division, including the purchase of two new...
UWTSD launches the Wales Academy for Professional Practice and Applied Research
The University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) launched the Wales Academy for Professional Practice and Applied Research during an event yesterday at its IQ building, part of the University’s new SA1 Swansea Waterfront development. Formerly known as the Wales...
Swansea Council’s Spending on Cycling Provision Matches the Netherlands!
News just in that the Welsh Government has given Swansea Council an additional £2m for bike provision in the county. So this year Swansea Council will have spent £20 per person on bike routes – the same amount spent in the Netherlands!
Cygnet Gin the ‘Perfect Serve’ for Wetherspoons
Premium Welsh Gin a hit with the national chain Cygnet Gin, the Welsh gin brand has added an extra 'splash' of success to its busy year, by ending it celebrating the inclusion into the JD Wetherpoons menus. The gin itself, created, distilled and bottled in South Wales...
Swansea Creative Quarter Cluster
Following our Creative Quarter Roundtable in September 2019, a group of 4theRegion Changemakers has been meeting on a weekly basis to take forward some of the ideas we discussed.  We know that creating a vibrant, creative, inclusive Swansea is key to achieving our economic and social goals for the region.
Changing the Headlines
At a recent meeting, a senior Swansea Council officer said that what he wanted for the region was to “Change the Headlines”. That’s what we want too, so we’ve done just that! Here’s a glimpse into the future we are working to co-create, in this newspaper front cover from March 2030… Do you share our vision of a flourishing future for South West Wales?
Event Report – Community Support Agriculture & Agroecology
On Wednesday 13th November, representatives from 4theRegion attended an event entitled, Sustainable Food Production: Potential for CSA in Wales. This is our write up of the event.
Roundtable Report – Swansea High Street Property
On Monday 11th November 2019 4theRegion convened a meeting of key property sector professionals with interests in high street and city centre property. Our goal was to explore some of the challenges and opportunities relating to vacant space in the city, and share updates on what’s happening to property throughout the city.
A Rooftop Farm above a City Centre Development in Swansea
Hacer Developments, a developer based in Swansea and West Wales, has announced further details of an exciting new scheme for Swansea City Centre. Biophilic Living is a mixed-use regeneration development on the site of the former Woolworths store on Oxford Street,...
Swans Sign Peter Lynn and Partners for a Third Season
Leading Welsh law firm, Peter Lynn and Partners, have extended their partnership with Swansea City for a third consecutive year. Peter Lynn and Partners, who have been associated with the Swans for many years, will continue as the club’s ‘Official Preferred Legal...
The Art of the Possible – An Event to Procure Transformation
On 12th December, we're running an event in Swansea that we hope will open new possibilities for our regional economy. The Art of the Possible is bringing the right people together to create a shared sense of purpose around keeping more regional...
College enhances employer development focus with appointment of former Dragons Rugby CEO, Stuart Davies
Gower College Swansea has announced Stuart Davies as its new Business Development Consultant. Having grown up only a stone’s throw away from the College’s Hill House estate in Tycoch, Stuart spent 14 years at the highest level of rugby, as a regular for both Swansea...
Multi-million pound Pembroke Dock Marine project takes major step forward
A multi-million pound project that will place Pembrokeshire at the heart of global marine energy innovation has taken a major step forward. The Swansea Bay City Deal’s Joint Committee has signed-off a detailed business case for the £60 million Pembroke Dock Marine...
The new side waste educational officers already making a difference
Three new Neath Port Talbot Council Side Waste Officers have been engaging with residents offering help and advice over changes in waste recycling rules all aimed at helping the authority meet Welsh Government recycling targets. Some residents continue to place large...
Lottery Boost for Seed Pod
Young Dragons, a Community Interest company based in Swansea, in partnership with the Village Hotel and supported by Big Ideas Wales, have received a small grant from the National Lottery’s Awards for All to establish Seed Pod, an initiative to support early stage...
Gower Gas Secures Foundational Economy Funding!
This week, Welsh Government ministers announced the first three projects to be allocated funding from the Foundational Economy Fund, and a growing regional business is proud to be among the successful recipients! Gower Gas & Oil is an "organically Welsh" sme based...
Conference Report – Race Equality & Social Justice 2019
RACE EQUALITY & SOCIAL JUSTICE CONFERENCEWEDNESDAY 9TH OCTOBER 2019GRAND THEATRE, SWANSEA The Wales Race Equality & Social Justice Conference, #EveryoneMatters, was organised in partnership with the Race Council, and brought together people and organisations...
So, what actually is the Foundational Economy?
Sometime in 2018, the Welsh Government started talking about something called "the Foundational Economy", and then in February 2019 they launched something called "the Foundational Economy Challenge Fund"... This week, the first of the projects to have been...
University Distinction Marks the Start of an Amazing Career Change
As one of the largest law firms in Swansea, Peter Lynn and Partners offers an average of ten training contracts each year, but for one trainee, her journey is slightly different from your average solicitor. Qualifying from her LPC course at Swansea University with a...
The Future is Bright for South Wales Law Firm
Leading regional law firm Peter Lynn and Partners have invested in the future of the firm with the appointment of several new trainees and paralegals. Ciaran Sturge, Amber Harding, Alexander Kurtz - Shefford and Dominic Dineen are all starting their legal careers...
5G Rollout in the Well-Being Region
Now this is a difficult one, but I don't think we should avoid discussion because it's difficult. All around the world, sensible and well-meaning people are coming together to share their fears about the potential health impacts of the roll-out of 5G technology. And...