Broken promises? Politicians battle over the shape of Bridgend's future

It's sad. I think it killed the town," said Debbie, sitting in a cafe in Bridgend and recalling the closure of Ford's South Wales engine plant almost five years ago. "There were lots of men and women working there at the end."

- Joanna Partridge

During its 40 years of operations, workers at Bridgend Ford produced 22m engines for Ford, Volvo and Jaguar cars, before it closed quietly in September 2020 during Covid restrictions.

Debbie's husband was one of 1,700 people who worked for the biggest employer in the town, located between Cardiff and Swansea, when the factory's closure was announced in 2019.

At the time, many other Ford workers pinned their hopes on taking their skills to a car plant planned for a neighbouring industrial estate by the chemicals company Ineos, where it intended to build its Grenadier 4x4 vehicle. However, the company, owned by billionaire Brexit-backer Sir Jim Ratcliffe, cancelled the development, opting to build the "British" vehicle in France instead.

Five or six years later, the Ford site is still empty, but an industry of the future has big plans. The US-based data centre company Vantage bought the land for a reported £27.5m in 2024. In recent weeks it has submitted a planning application to the council to build a huge data centre complex on the site, representing a multibillion-pound investment.

In its application, Vantage said the cluster of 10 data centres would "lay the foundation for future prosperity and regional economic regeneration". Future prosperity may, however, be some way off.

Subject to planning approval, Vantage intends to start construction early next year, and will build the complex over three phases up to 2040. Once operational, it is pledging 600 full-time jobs on site, with a further 350 in the supply chain. It says the average salary of Vantage employees is £75,000, more than double the average salary in Bridgend and in Wales.