The £10 million Welsh business park that still has no businesses

Lewis Smith, local democracy reporter

In a rural area near Bridgend on the borders of the Vale of Glamorgan, there are currently a series of unused roads and pavements that lead to nowhere.

Positioned between the M4 and A48, Brocastle Business Park was built to give an economic boost to the area, with the £10 million site funded by the Welsh Government with the aim of creating thousands of jobs.

However, despite numerous plots of land being ready and waiting to be filled by businesses, there is no hum of machinery or chatter of workers, just an eerie silence as none of the land has yet been occupied.

The business park was completed in November 2021 on land next to the A48, around five miles away from junction 35 of the M4.

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Stimulus

It was built with Welsh Government funding to provide a “substantial stimulus to employment opportunities” with outline planning consent for up to 770,000sq feet of floor space.

The works were carried out by a local civil engineering contractor and funded with more than £10 million from the Welsh Government, including around £6.2 million awarded through the European Regional Development Fund.

An additional £2 million was also given to the project to link the new employment site to Waterton with an Active Travel Route.

At the time of the opening, the then Minister for Economy Vaughan Gething said the “significant investment” had been made for the plans that he hoped would lead to the creation of many new jobs.

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Key roads

However, despite the completion of key roads and provision for nine plots at the site, as of August 2025, none appear to have been used with marketing agents still showing all of them as being available.

Local Community Councillor Keith Hughes said he like others felt the area was still in need of more jobs adding that he hoped the investment at the site would eventually pay off.

The Welsh Government said they were still confident that this would be the case, with negotiations on two of the plots currently taking place and others being “actively marketed”.

A spokesperson said: “Since substantial completion of the development plots, Brocastle has received a number of serious enquiries from interested parties.

“We are currently negotiating offers on two of the nine plots, one to a developer and one to an owner occupier.

“The remaining plots continue to be actively marketed by commercial property agents and have been attracting steady interest.

“We remain confident that the site will attract further investment to Bridgend and be home to many new jobs in the coming years.”