Businesses could finally move into £7.4m site after five years

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

A award-winning £7.4m business complex that has stood empty for more than five years could be handed back to the council within weeks after repairs to a leaking roof.

The Box Works in Ebbw Vale was built from converted shipping containers to provide low-cost offices and workspaces for start-ups and small businesses.

Councillors heard on Thursday, 12 November, that contractor Kier was close to handing the two-storey building back to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.

Independent councillor Gareth Alban Davies, who represents Rassau and Garnlydan, asked for an update on the Lime Avenue development at a meeting of the council’s corporate governance and resources scrutiny committee.

“It’s been built for several years; it’s been there for some time now and hasn’t been used,” he said.

Roger Allonby, joint director of economy and place for Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen councils, said: “The good news is we are very close to having it handed back from the contractor, Kier, having had issues with the building resolved.

“The main issue is that the roof was leaking.”

Mr Allonby said he understood the handover was expected in “just a few weeks” and that the council was looking at how to bring businesses into the building.

Asked by Cllr Davies whether the council had received any compensation from the contractor, Mr Allonby said he would look into it.

He told the committee that the council had made sure the contractor carried out repairs at the Box Works and at other buildings in the area where problems had emerged. Committee chair Cllr Joanna Wilkins recorded the compensation query for a future update.

The Box Works was first proposed in 2017 as a joint venture between the council and Kier Construction. Work began in 2019 and, after delays during the Covid-19 pandemic, was completed in July 2021.

The Consortium of Local Authorities in Wales named it project of the year in 2022.