The county council in Anglesey, an island in Wales off the mainland’s northwest coast, and Sweden’s Stena Line plan to submit this week a bid to create a freeport at Holyhead Port in North Wales. Stena Line has also invested in a 213-acre site, one of a number of sites that will be selected across Anglesey for economic development related to the freeport.
Stena Line Ports operates Holyhead Port, the second-largest roll-on/roll-off port in the UK and an international gateway, via the Irish Sea, to Ireland.
According to initial modelling estimates, said the Holyhead Port Authority in a press release, the Anglesey freeport would attract £1bn of investment and up to 13,000 new jobs across the region. The bid, which has the backing of 17 major businesses from a range of sectors and industries, including Rolls-Royce, Bechtel and Last Energy, would see the establishment of a secure customs zone at Holyhead and other sites on Anglesey with special tax and tariff arrangements designed to attract domestic and international investment.
Carwyn Jones, Deputy Leader of the Anglesey Council, said: ““We are particularly pleased to have an education, skills and training component so prominent in the bid thinking. It is fantastic to have ongoing conversations with Bangor University, a world leader in impact-driven research, to identify and tailor educational opportunities to the potential job creation that the freeport could support.”
Alastair Evans, Corporate Affairs Director at Rolls-Royce, said that, “while Anglesey at present remains attractive to long-term investment, the addition of the proposed freeport could enhance its offer to our business.”
