A major employer in Newport looks set to move to a new home, after plans to built a facility on edge of the city have been recommended for approval.

Last year, technology manufacturing firm SPTS Technologies revealed plans to move from their existing headquarters in Ringland, to a massive, purpose built site elsewhere in the city.

The new facility, located at the Celtic Way Business Park on Imperial Way, near to the existing Vantage Data Centre, would be a purpose build centre for the company’s semiconductor business.

Documents show that a two-storey manufacturing, research, and development facility would be built here, along with a number of associated buildings.

These plans are set to be boosted this week, with plans to build the new facility recommended for approval at a Newport City Council planning committee meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, February 2).

A report drawn up ahead of the meeting has recommended that the facility be approved, subject to an agreement for Section 106 contributions to be drawn up.

What do plans show?

In October, the city council received plans from Capita Real Estate & Infrastructure on behalf of SPTS Technologies Limited, in regards to these plans.

They showed that the company currently headquartered at Ringland Way in Newport was looking to move, with a four storey administration building also forming part of the Celtic Way plans.

Their proposed new home is currently vacant land, though hardstanding was built here several years ago, as part of LG Electronics’ development plans – which ultimately failed to come to fruition.

As part of these plans, it is revealed that 460 employees would move from Ringland into the new facility.

And, according to their application, it comes as “SPTS Technologies Ltd have outgrown their existing site at Junction 24 Ringland Way and due to the expansion of the business propose to develop a new R&D facility and administrative headquarters for ongoing and future expansion capacity.”

What has been said about the plans?

According to a report drawn up by city council planning officers, SPTS have been given anchor company status by the Welsh Government, “for increasing jobs and growing the economy.”

But, this growth comes at a cost – with the firm projected to outgrow their Ringland Way home by mid-2023.

The report says that “SPTS currently have an off-site storage facility 4 miles from their main site and this proposal would rationalise the operation to one larger and more sustainable site. SPTS has 590 staff globally with 360 based in the Newport, Wales HQ and the proposed HQ facility will accommodate 460 staff initially, with it being designed to accommodate 650 staff in total based on future growth projection over the next few years.”

South Wales Argus: An artist impression of the rear of the siteAn artist impression of the rear of the site

Continuing, it reveals that the site will be configured in the following way: “The two-storey element located to the rear and will contain the manufacturing processes of the business and the four storey element will be the ‘front of house’, containing the administrative office space, meeting and staff training rooms, canteen and café and staff welfare facilities.”

It is not thought that there will be any noise or disruption to residents of the city, given the site location is a mixture of brownfield and technological industry sites.

Overall, the report says that “it is considered that on balance the proposed development would have significant economic benefits and would not cause unacceptable impact on the environment or surrounding lands uses.”

However, given the size and scale of the project, it is set to go before Newport’s planning committee tomorrow for final approval.