Adventure Park Investment Row

Opposition councillors in Swansea launched a barrage of criticism at the support being offered to the company building an adventure park in the city.

Council leader Rob Stewart hit back, saying if they wanted to collapse the project and harm Swansea’s wider economic interests “they don’t deserve to sit in this chamber”.

Swansea Council is co-investing along with the Welsh Government in the private sector scheme on Kilvey Hill and also arranging the assembly of land to help facilitate it.

This time last year the council agreed an £8.1 million allocation towards the project – being developed by New Zealand company Skyline Enterprises – as part of its wider capital budget. The figure now approved following a debate at full council on March 5 is £10.2 million.

People protesting about the development gathered outside the Guildhall before the meeting, and in answer to a question from a member of the public about the additional funding once inside, Cllr Stewart said it related to land transaction details with other parts of government.

The money wasn’t, he said, being provided directly to Skyline Enterprises and it wasn’t correct to say project costs were suddenly rising. “It’s about the land assembly,” he said. The Swansea Labour leader said he couldn’t say any more at this stage due to commercial confidentiality.

When the capital budget was debated later in the meeting, Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Black took up the Skyline baton with an opposition amendment asking Labour to reduce its proposed £10.2 million backing of the project by £2 million and spend that £2 million instead on road repairs.

Cllr Black welcomed the administration’s planned £12 million investment in roads in 2026-27 but said an extra £2 million would accelerate the backlog “catch-up”.

He said he had three issues with the Kilvey Hill project: the ecological impact; the business plan, particularly the assertion of 450,000 visitors per year; and what exactly the council was putting into it.

Cllr Black said he didn’t think any tourist attraction in Wales got close to 450,000 visitors per year. He said: “It’s Hans Christian Andersen economics.”

He felt the council’s investment was “not safe” and that he couldn’t see it being repaid. Cllr Black said he would expect private companies which were being supported by local or central government to buy the land they needed themselves for a development. “Now we are not doing that with Skyline,” he said.

“When Skyline came to us several years ago, we were told don’t worry we (the council) were only putting in effectively what was less than half of what we are talking about now and, don’t worry, they are going to pay it back,” he said. “Now it’s £10.2 million. It seems to me that we have already reached the limit.”

Given the state of roads not just in Swansea but everywhere, he said, the £2 million extra proposed for roads was “money better spent”.

Uplands Party councillor Stuart Rice said he would remove all the council’s financial support for Skyline “if it was a perfect world”. He asked where the 450,000 visitors would park, assuming many of them would drive, and felt there was a general lack of transparency about the development, which will have a gondola lift to the top of Kilvey Hill from across the River Tawe in Landore.

“I feel people would feel happier if they heard more about it, perhaps,” said Cllr Rice.

And, addressing Cllr Stewart, he said: “Rob, what do you want to be remembered for? That’s what I would ask you to consider.”

Green Party councillor Chris Evans said he hasn’t been convinced by the environmental or economic arguments put forward about the Skyline project, while newly-Independent councillor Joe Hale – Labour until being suspended recently – asked why a company like Skyline Enterprises couldn’t stand on its own two feet.

Cllr Hale said the council’s financial backing wasn’t acceptable to people he represented in the Swansea East ward overlooked by Kilvey Hill.

“I come from an area over on the Eastside that’s got a high degree of poverty, and, what, you’re giving us a funfair?” he said.

Addressing the various points, Cllr Stewart said ecology matters had been tested in planning meetings and that the business plan had gone through the Welsh Government and been “fully tested”.

Cllr Stewart said the same concerns were raised and methodology used when the council built the Swansea Building Society Arena, which opened in 2022 and was now he said approaching its millionth visitor.

He added that Skyline Enterprises successfully operated other adventure parks elsewhere, knew its business and was putting in “close to £50 million” of its own money into the Kilvey Hill development.

On the land assembly matter Cllr Stewart said councillors would know “which other part of government” was driving those costs and that they weren’t falling solely on the council.

Cllr Stewart also said Labour was already proposing to allocate a further £2 million to road repairs on top of the £12 million mentioned and that he’d been advised that £12 million to £14 million was “pushing the envelope” in terms of what the council to do staff-wise on the ground.

He said what was therefore left of the opposition’s amendment was a “wrecking motion” aimed at “collapsing the deal with the Welsh Government and with Skyline”.

He said doing so would put the proposed metro transport project, including a train station at Landore, at risk, weaken the tourism offer in that area for Penderyn – the whisky distillery which has a base at the former Hafod-Morfa Copperworks – and undermine the council’s Tawe riverside corridor strategy.

“If that is what the opposition members who have spoken on this truly want to do to the economic opportunities for the people of Swansea, then they don’t deserve to sit in this chamber and claim to be standing up for the people of Swansea,” he said.

Referring back to Cllr Rice’s question about what he would like to be remembered for, Cllr Stewart said: “I think we would all want to be remembered for making the city better, not passing up a really, really good opportunity to bring jobs, bring tourism and bring prosperity to Swansea.”

The amendment was defeated and the council went on to approve a five-year capital budget covering new schools, investments in care facilities, city centre acquisitions and other projects totalling an estimated £653 million.

Left in the capital budget despite the uncertainty surrounding the Ospreys as regional rugby side beyond 2027 was a £5 million allocation for the redevelopment of St Helen’s rugby and cricket ground to host the club following its move from the Swansea.com Stadium.

“That money is ready to be released as soon as the WRU (Welsh Rugby Union) sees sense,” said Cllr Stewart.