City’s one-mile cycle path to cost £8m
Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter
A new mile-long riverside path for pedestrians and cyclists will take three years to complete and cost £8 million.
Barges will be needed for the construction of the path along Swansea’s River Tawe, the council has said.
The active travel route will be built in three phases on the west bank of the river from a point north of the Tawe bridges to the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks area, helping to link the city centre with the copperworks, Swansea.com Stadium and Morfa Retail Park for cyclists and pedestrians.
The council’s cabinet formally approved funding for the project, which will take three years to complete, along with several other transport schemes at a meeting last week.
Cllr Andrew Stevens, cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said the new path would help open up the riverfront.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the council why the path seemed to be such an expensive project, why it couldn’t be done in less time and whether a section of existing shared-use path near the former copperworks would be incorporated in the new one.
The council said it would be a complex scheme in terms of engineering. “The works will include the provision of a new revetment to support the walkway, with elements of the work also needing to be constructed from barges due to access restrictions,” said a council spokesman.
He said it would link up with the existing stretch of shared-use path near the copperworks – an area undergoing major restoration – and add to 85 miles of shared-use paths throughout Swansea.
A report before cabinet said the path would cost £8.25 million including design and project management costs and be paid for via £6.6 million of Welsh Government regional transport fund money, plus £1.4 million from the UK Government and a £250,000 developer contribution linked to a separate planning permission.
E-bike hire scheme
Other schemes benefiting from regional transport fund money are due to be implemented in Swansea in 2026-27, including a £750,000 e-bike hire scheme with up to 500 bikes.
Cllr Stevens said the aim of the e-bike hire was to offer people a practical alternative for short trips and better links to public transport. The locations of where they’ll be available for hire, he said, were still to be determined.
Other projects to be delivered in 2026-27 include an £800,000 drainage scheme at Killay Square, Killay, a new £700,000 shared-use path linking Ffordd Beck, Gowerton, to Pont Y Cob Road less than a mile away, and a £500,000 upgrade of the shared-use path between Dunvant and Gowerton.
There’s also £370,000 for eight new rapid electric vehicle charge points proposed in Clydach, St Thomas, the SA1-Swansea Marina area and Port Eynon, and £175,000 for safety improvements on Gors Road, Townhill.
Speed camera system
Also in the pipeline this financial year is a new average speed camera system on the A484 between the Cadle roundabout and Loughor Bridge, along with improved road markings and signs.
Regional transport fund money will also be used to design future schemes such as a new park and ride site on Alamein Road, Landore, to replace the existing one by the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks, and a flood alleviation scheme on the A4118 between Llanddewi and Scurlage, Gower.
Speaking last week a businessman based on the A484 between the Cadle roundabout and Loughor Bridge said of the proposed speed cameras: “It could do with it – it’s a very fast road. And it’s a lot faster at night-time. They race up and down there.”
The council has previously confirmed expenditure of just over £12 million on roads, pavements, bridges and gulleys for 2026-27. Around £9 million of it is for road repairs and resurfacing. Speaking at the cabinet meeting council leader Rob Stewart said a further £2 million could potentially be added to the pot in the first quarter of the current financial year.
He also drew colleagues’ attention to wider plans for a Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro, which has received £761,000 of regional transport fund money for 2026-27. The metro aims among other things to result in new rail stations at Landore and Winch Wen and potentially at Pontlliw, Felindre, Morriston, Llandarcy and Cockett.
“I think we should be really excited about all this,” said Cllr Stewart.
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My advice would be not to bother. Spend the £8m on something people will be grateful for. Llanelli has miles and miles of these costly cycle paths which are completely ignored by the vast majority of the ungrateful lycra brigade who think they are above riding on them and prefer to mingle among the traffic causing annoyance and hold-ups. They use the road when there is a cycle path running adjacent to that road. That’s the thanks the taxpayer gets from these self-important people. If they aren’t bothered about their own safety why should we!! If one of them ever… Read more »
As both a motorist and a cyclist who rides on the road, I’d push back on most of this. This kind of investment in active travel and shared infrastructure is long overdue, and if anything this scheme doesn’t go far enough. What it does do is open up the river and improve access to sites of real historic importance for the region, which is a genuine benefit for the whole community, not just cyclists. The assumption that paths like this are purely for road cyclists who “should” be kept out of traffic misses the point entirely. Shared paths are community… Read more »
What a hyperbole laden lot of nonsense coming from a ‘self important’ motorist! Of course a motorist will get the blame if they fatally injure a cyclist. You need to acquaint yourself with rule 204 of the Highway Code which points out that those road users who have the greater likelihood of causing danger to others have the greater responsibility to reduce the danger.
How do you know the ‘lycra brigade’ ignore the off-road cycle path network around Llanelli if you’ve never been there? I do so regularly. It’s very well used. Only one missing link, that to Trostre and of course the embankment collapse up at Tumble. Suspect the issue you have is you can’t drive properly if you keep crashing into things. Perhaps you are referring to the main road from Llangennech where the cycle path is parallel to the road. The reason that is not well used is poor design. A cyclist have to give way to traffic and swap sides… Read more »
I would not comment if I was not familiar with the facts!! I use the Llanelli coastal road and the Llangennech route almost every day and seeing a cyclist or pedestrians using the paths is a rare sight indeed.
The Llanelli coastal road does have some disjointed verge sections of cycle path but the route of actual cycle path used in this part of Llanelli is completely off-road and traverses from North Dock around Machynys, to the back of Tata and towards the wetland centre, along the estuary to Lougher bridge and onwards to Gowerton and Swansea. This is very well used, both by the leisure cyclist and industrial and retail commuters. Such a route is well outside the observation of a casual motorist on the A494. This is the reason for your ‘rare sightings’.
Wonder when was the last time many people looked at the Highway Code.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code
If you’d read your HIghway Code properly you would know that the highway is for all road users, whether they be pedestrians or 42 tonne juggernaut drivers – and no one has priority.
Good to see. I’ve just returned from the Netherlands where infrastructure for cyclists is something that we can only dream about here and cyclists are not treated like some kind of pariah as they all too often are in the UK.
In the Nederlands 40% of people ride bikes on a regular basis, in the U.K it’s
5%, and has been the same for years.
How about supporting child poverty and homelessness first, that would be novel , instead of the millions spent on empty deliveroo highway routes that costing millions ?
So you’d support it if 40% cycled but you don’t support improving the infrastructure to allow 40% to cycle.
They have it nailed down there but their journey started in the 50’s. I hope this is a start in the UK, we need more of this.
Vital infrastructure. But £8m? Do countries such as The Netherlands spend the same amount per mile? I would love to know so answers appreciated. £8m seems bonkers.
Councils cannot knock a nail into a wall for less than a million pounds these days. Where and from whom they get their estimates from is questionable.
Obviously, the major cost in this £8m project is building a reenforced embankment on the west side of the Tawe on which the cycle path will be. Seems a bit of an extravagance bearing in mind there is already an existing cycle path along the east bank, which is accessed from a cycle path bridge at Morfa copper works which runs down to Parc Tawe. Yet the council continue to ignore the most important missing link in the Swansea Cycle path network. That being access to the train station. There used to be a route known as ‘the cut’, a… Read more »
Path already exists on other side of river with bridges at both ends. Seems like council is now lacking priorities despite ample evidence of homelessness and other social deprivation that could be reduced with a chunk of that £8million.
Can’t use “regional transport fund money” for other priorities.