New parcel delivery depot to create 146 jobs in Swansea

A parcel firm has been given the go-ahead to open a delivery depot on the outskirts of Swansea, initially creating 146 jobs.

DPD will be the first tenant at Parc Felindre business park, on the site of a tinplate works which closed in 1989.

The site had been earmarked for a private hospital, but the project did not materialise.

Swansea council leader Rob Stewart said the depot plan showed confidence in the city.

The depot will take up eight acres (3.2ha) of land, about a quarter of the size of the Amazon warehouse in neighbouring Neath Port Talbot.

It is predicted to employ 380 people when operating at full capacity, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The tinplate works, which had employed more than 2,000 people, closed in 1989 before being demolished in 1996.

Swansea council agreed a strategy for the business park in 2006, which envisaged high-tech and emerging industries setting up there.

When it emerged in June that £36m had been spent on the site so far, Plaid Cymru assembly member Dr Dai Lloyd said there had been "a lot of frustration" about the lack of progress in attracting businesses there.

The Welsh Government said developing such sites was "challenging".