Plans for the future of Newport could include a tidal lagoon on the River Usk, similar to the one being proposed for Swansea, to help it become a greener city, according to Newport City Council leader Bob Bright.

Councillor Bright, speaking exclusively to Business Argus, said that the possibility of a lagoon was a long way in the future but the council was ‘in a very preliminary stage’ with consultants looking at the benefits of creating a lagoon on the Usk.

He said: “This is very long term project but if it happens it will help us negotiate deals with people who are interested in the green agenda.”

Cllr Bright also said he would like to see the Pill area of the city becoming an exotic food quarter to rival those in other cities around the country.

Cllr Bright, head of strategy at Newport City Council Sheila Davies, and Cllr John Richard, cabinet member for regeneration and development, were speaking to Business Argus about the regeneration of the city – and what plans there were for the future of Newport.

Sheila Davies said that there had already been £250m worth of investment in the city from projects including Friars Walk, Vibrant and Viable Places, Admiral and the city council itself.

She said Newport was ideally placed to create a vibrant city centre.

She said a successful city needed three key ingredients including a city centre university, a retail and leisure offering and people living within the city centre.

Plans to redevelop buildings in the city centre to residential accommodation, including the Kings Hotel and Olympia House, were already in place, with more to come.

She said: “The difference between a town and a city is the way the local economy works. In a town everything closes at 5.30pm and the centre is deserted. In a city you have a different sort of planning. There are shops on the ground floors, then offices and then residential on the upper floors of the buildings. You need that in a city. You also need a vibrant university. These are the key ingredients for a vibrant city centre and we are doing that.”

She praised Newport city councillors for taking the ‘innovative’ decision to lend Friars Walk developers, Queensberry Real Estate, £90m to kick-start the development.

She said that due to the economic situation across the whole of the UK it had looked unlikely that the firm would have been able to raise the money needed to get Friars Walk off the ground.

And Cllr Bright explained that the money was being lent to QRE in much smaller amounts short term, using cash flow to save on interest charges, and the council, and the city, will eventually benefit from repayments of the loan at a higher rate of interest.

Cllr Bright said it that what was also important in the drive towards a successful Newport was to make sure that the people of the city were trained and skilled so that they were able to take the new jobs a successful city would bring.

Plans for the future success of Newport also included embracing the metro plans, which could see a new station at Llanwern to not only service the new homes currently being built at Glan Llyn but which could also service the Wales International Conference Centre being built at the Celtic Manor Resort.

Cllr Richards said: “It is the council which has led on all this regeneration.”