Major visitor attraction set for approval despite local opposition

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

Plans for a visitor attraction featuring a gondola lift, zipline, sky swing, luge runs and mountain bike trails on Swansea’s Kilvey Hill have been recommended for approval.

Council planning officers said the cumulative benefits of the proposal by New Zealand-based Skyline Enterprises would outweigh “significant harm arising from landscape and visual impacts”.

Their 136-page report is due to be discussed by the authority’s planning committee on Tuesday, March 4.

The application has been referred to the committee due to the size of the site area; it has also been called in by Bonymaen councillor Mandy Evans.

The Skyline project would consist of a base station at the Landore park and ride site, requiring the demolition of the current park and ride terminal building. From there, people would take an eight-seater gondola lift over the River Tawe and up Kilvey Hill.

The area at the top station would lead to a food hall and outdoor terrace.

Visitors would have the option of a five-person sky swing, a zipline sending riders out on a 1km loop, two luge tracks and a linking track, mountain bike routes and walking trails.

Luge riders would get back up the hill on a four-seater chairlift. There would also be paths serving a new play area.

Opening hours for the sky wing, zipline and luge rides would vary from summer to winter. The gondola lift and food hall would be open from 9am to midnight throughout the year.

The planning officers’ report said public access to Kilvey Hill would be maintained and the play area, mountain bike routes and walking trails would be free to use. A discounted annual pass for the paid-for elements of the project has been proposed.

The report said land at Kilvey Hill was managed by the council, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and private landowners, and parts of it were maintained as a community woodland. The council’s cabinet has agreed in principle to dispose of its land at the site.

Skyline Enterprises’ application has led to 545 objections from individuals, plus others from groups and societies. There have also been 40 letters of support.

Concerns include the visual and noise impacts of the development, the effect on wildlife and ecology, loss of green space, restricted access to the hill during construction, increased parking pressures locally, how the project sat with the council’s “net zero” commitments, and the proposed use of public money to support it.

An email from ward councillor Joe Hale claimed it would bring noise and disruption rather than economic growth.

The planning report said the Welsh Government has awarded a £4m subsidy for the project with £1m being repayable. No financial support has been directly provided by the council to Skyline, but it is considering an investment of approximately £8m.

Supporters of the proposal said it would bring jobs to the area, attract further investment into Swansea, raise its tourism profile, open up the hill to a wider cross-section of people and potentially stop off-road motorbikes on the hill.

The planning report said the proposals “would result in harmful landscape and visual impacts derived from the high sensitivity of the landscape and the changes as a result of the introduction of man-made structures”.

These impacts would be mitigated to some degree, it added, by the development’s design, layout, landscaping and “sensitive” lighting.

Kilvey Hill is a designated quiet area – one of 18 in Swansea, with others including Brynmill Park, Swansea beach and Singleton Park – but the planning report said these areas were not bound by objective noise levels or limits.

“The majority of Swansea’s quiet areas are large areas and allow for such vibrant and lively leisure and play activities to take place while still allowing those who want a quiet and tranquil experience to seek out such areas within the wider quiet area,” it said.

Based on the information provided, the report said it did not follow that current users of the hill would be so affected by the increased noise levels as to avoid it. There would be some harm to the quiet area, it said, but the impact would not be unacceptable.

Turning to ecology, the report said a large proportion of the application site was part of a designated site of importance for nature conservation.

The development would require the removal of just under seven hectares of mainly conifer woodland, and the loss of three-and-a-half hectares of purple moor-grass and rush pasture and grassland.

Skyline Enterprises has proposed planting a more diverse spread of shrubs and trees to increase habitat variety, as well as managing and improving retained woodland areas.

The planning report also said NRW had a long-term plan to replace conifers on the hill with open habitat or native broadleaved trees, and neither it nor the council’s planning ecologist had objected.

Annual visitor numbers to the attraction could reach 466,200, according to Skyline Enterprises, with about half coming from outside Wales.

The construction phase could create 316 direct and indirect jobs, with 110 full-time equivalent jobs then created by the second year of operation.

Visitors could park at 334 spaces at the reconfigured Landore park and ride. It is estimated 71% of trips would be by car, 18% by bike or on foot and 10% by public transport.

A scheme showing cycle parking layout is one of the recommended planning conditions, while a new railway station at Landore is a separate Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro proposal.

The planning report said the council was exploring options to relocate the current Landore park and ride site and the existing one which would serve the Skyline project was “significantly under-used” at present.

Tourism, added the report, was considered “vitally important” to Swansea’s economy, and the benefits of a year-round attraction was deemed significant.

If the plans are approved, Skyline Enterprises will need contribute £30,000 to improve and extend the right of way network on Kilvey Hill.

Asked about its potential investment in the Skyline project, a council spokesman said it had set aside approximately £8m which would be expected to be repaid in full.

“While cabinet has approved funding in principle, there is no binding commitment as yet on the council’s part and funding would need to meet certain conditions before any money is potentially paid out,” he said.

Speaking in May last year, a senior Skyline Enterprises representative said the development would take up 9% of Kilvey Hill and the only restricted section would be at the top of the gondola ride for safety reasons.

The company’s board has approved a budget of 78 million New Zealand dollars, which is around £35m at current exchange rates.

Skyline Enterprises operates eight other leisure developments worldwide but none yet in Europe.