Bryn Cegin: Bangor site will finally see work - but no jobs

Bryn Cegin business park has been owned by the Welsh Government since 2000

Bryn Cegin business park had been owned by the Welsh government since 2000

A business park which remained empty for 20 years, despite the Welsh government spending £11m on it, is finally set to be used.

Gwynedd council has approved plans to build a lorry fuelling facility at Parc Bryn Cegin, Bangor - however, no permanent jobs will be created.

Ministers were criticised after the park was created in 2000 but failed to attract the hoped-for 1,600 jobs.

The Welsh Government said it was working on selling plots at the park.

In 2005, it was announced the project would receive £3.5m from the European Union and £4.9m from the Welsh Development Agency.

The site had been tipped as a site for a multi-screen cinema, but it is understood developers struggled to attract the restaurants needed to make the scheme viable.

It had also been part of plans by Gwynedd council to create a Park and Ride scheme on the outskirts of Bangor.

The 90-acre site has been empty for more than 20 years.

While the development of the fuelling station will mean construction jobs, no permanent roles will be created.

The new site will be run by CNG Fuels Ltd, and will provide refuelling bays for lorries to fill their tanks with Bio-CNG fuel.

Bio-CNG fuel is created from natural waste such as food waste and sewerage.

The Welsh Government said it owned the business park and it was "working with a number of parties" over the sale of individual development plots, including to CNG fuels. 

A spokesperson added: "The planning application for their proposed HGV biofuel compressed natural gas filling station was recently considered by Gwynedd County Council's planning committee where it was proposed to approve the application and undertake a site visit to get accustomed with the location of the proposed station."

But Dr Edward Thomas Jones, an economist at Bangor University, said the business park is in an "ideal" place so there is "no excuse as to why [it] has been empty for so long.

"It's hard to say what went wrong," he added, suggesting the timing of the development may have been part of the problem.

Dr Jones said lessons must now be learned from what has happened.

"It's good that a company is now coming but it's a shame that they won't be creating jobs," he said. "The hope is when other businesses see a company there, they will go to."

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