Blown away

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I thought I‘d seen most things in local government over the last 35 years.  None of it compared to yesterday when I had the pleasure of visiting the 1,000-bed field hospital that we’re constructing on the site of the former Bay Studios and Visteon plant.  I visited it a few years ago when the huge buildings had been converted into a replica of medieval Florence for the TV series Da Vinci’s Demons but that was a piece of cake compared to what’s happening there at the moment. 

Walking around the site and seeing the transformation in the past couple of weeks from a disused, dirty, old factory was truly inspiring.

I cannot believe the amount of work that’s gone in during such a short space of time. There’s incredible team work between the council and our contractors Kier and TRJ. More than 200 skilled tradespeople are operating in a 24/7 work programme to hit the opening date in around two weeks with an initial 500 beds.

It’s an amazing scene. Where there were sprawling concrete floors just two weeks ago there’s now a huge expanse of insulated wooden flooring for modern hospital wards, you can now see a modern hospital emerging from this industrial wasteland.

There are too many people to thank, but Martin Nicholls and his team – including Nigel Williams, Gary Lloyd, Neil Smith and Daniel Chafey – have performed miracles in planning and delivering a new hospital in only a matter of weeks. And I have to thank our contractors and the tradespeople on site who have been working around the clock – heroes, every one of them.  And we will find a way to thank them all.

As a council we’re more used to building and refurbishing homes than building hospitals, but this project sums up how we have adapted and responded to this awful pandemic.

There’s been an incredible effort right across the council. So many of our staff are going beyond their normal call of duty; working extra hours, over weekends and bank holidays, retraining and being redeployed and keeping services going at a time when most of the country and economy is in lockdown.

You’re doing all this despite your own pressures and concerns for your loved ones. Your effort, expertise and dedication shows we are here for Swansea when the people of Swansea need us most.

We know this crisis isn’t over yet. In fact, it’s going to get worse before it gets better which means we still have much more to do to keep our services going. And unfortunately we’ll be asking you to make even more sacrifices in the coming weeks and months.

One of the ways you can continue to help is by using our new online service so you can volunteer quickly and easily for a different temporary role during this crisis. You’ll need to register and details are on: swansea.gov.uk/stafftemporaryrole

We can then contact you and make arrangements.

Once again, thank you for everything you’re doing, the people of Swansea won’t forget. And above all, stay safe.