being a city
Highlights from the ten years
• March 2002 sees Newport being made a new city for the new millennium. It was the third time in eight years that Newport had bid for city status.
• In June 2002 the Queen visited the new city as part of her Golden Jubilee tour.
• In June 2002 during the building work for the city’s Riverfront Theatre the remians of a medieval ship were found in the mud on the banks of the River Usk.
• The new City Centre Campus building of the University of Wales, Newport, was opned in January 2011. It is seen as a major part of the redevelopment of the city centre and riverfront areas.
• The Southern Distributor Road opened for business with the aim of easing the burden of the M4 and the Brynglas Tunnels. The new road has also opened up land on the banks of the River Usk which is being developed for housing.
• 2012 has seen renewed calls for an M4 relief road following a number of incidents in recent years which have resulted in the motorway being closed for hours effectively cutting off the main gateway to South Wales.
22 THEbusiness QUARTER
where Wales is and where in
Wales Newport is now than they did ten years ago and that has got to be good for the city. Finally, years ago the city had a
university but it was not particularly visible. Today you can’t but fail to see it – the state of the art architecture and riverside location puts the vibrancy of the business and arts campus right in the heart of things. However it’s about more
than just location. It’s about links between knowledge and the economy, it’s about aspiration and it’s about being seen as a city and not a town. A city campus underlines that we
in Newport have a uniqueness and a real role in developing the economy of Newport – especially in the next ten years. And that is good for the city and its citizens. So – ten years from now?
Newport as a city will be globally networked, trading in cutting edge technologies and making things no one else can, it will be what its always been: the gateway to Wales and Wales gateway to the world.
Newport – a city in search of a vision
Bob Clark, managing director and founder of Newport-based Clarks UK Ltd, said: “The granting of city status was a real opportunity for Newport to grow and prosper. It certainly provided the area with a higher profile and put it more on the map, but I can’t help feeling that we have not yet made the most of the opportunities we were given 10 years ago. “To be fair, for four of the last 10 years
the city – like most other places – has suffered from the effects of the harshest recession in living memory and it will take time to recover from that. “But the city requires a vision for the future, a vision which will encourage the
investment needed to enable the city to progress and develop. “One thing we have in abundance is an
excellent infrastructure with a first-class road and rail network to the city. From a business point of view that is a real positive and we should be making more of it. “But to me it’s the people who live and
work in a city that make it what it is. “Newport is the place where I was
born and brought up, went to school, work and eventually chose to base my business in. “I continue to live in the city and all my
family are here, so for me Newport will always be home.”
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