City’s new multi-storey car park set to open by Christmas

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

A new multi-storey car park in Swansea may finally be unwrapped in time for Christmas.

The structure has been covered up for many months while contractors finish what was left of the work after the company which began building it went into administration.

The works include weather-proofing the car parking decks, completing painting and fire protection jobs, and work on the external finish and appearance of the building.

The car park was part of the £135 million council-led Copr Bay project which gave rise to the indoor arena, adjacent coastal park and car park below, the unmissable yellow pedestrian bridge across Oystermouth Road, and flats and commercial units opposite.

Paintwork

The authority had hoped the multi-storey car park, which it said had problems with its paintwork, would be completed in spring 2024, and then the end of 2024.

Swansea firm Andrew Scott Ltd, which was brought in after Copr Bay contractors Buckingham Group went into administration, has been busy at the multi-storey car park for a while.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the council if it would be ready for use by Christmas, to which a spokesman replied: “We are working with the contractor to speed up delivery of the scheme with the aim of completion by the end of the year.”

He said the nearby St David’s multi-storey car park would remain open until the new car park was operational.

Asked if the ground floor commercial units would be open for Christmas and who the tenants were, the spokesman said: “We are in discussions with previous tenants that had been announced for the units. Any available units will soon be re-marketed and – subject to the agreement of tenants – we anticipate the units being open prior to Christmas.”

There has been praise for the 3,500-capacity Swansea Building Society Arena, as it’s now known, including from smaller independent music venues in the city. It opened in March 2022 and has hosted acts that were previously all but certain to have skipped Wales’ second city.

Glass lift

An external glass lift rising to the concourse level has proved tricky to resolve though. The council said it was an unfinished element of the scheme but that a solution had now been found. Work, it said, was due to start shortly. “We are targeting completion this summer,” said the spokesman.

Asked if the work to complete the multi-storey car park and other bits of the scheme would mean the Copr Bay budget being exceeded, the council said it had retained some funding and that this money – along with bonds, insurance and an offer of grant funding – was being used.

“There are no additional council funds being allocated to the project at this stage,” said the spokesman.