A huge sign which has gone up on the side of the ICC Wales being built at break-neck pace alongside the M4 in Newport leaves passing motorists in absolutely no doubt what’s coming out of the ground.

ICC Wales is impressive. It’s very large and it’ll certainly make a statement. Already major events are booked to exhibit as soon as it opens.

When the Celtic Manor Resort was being built there were those who wondered why a luxury, five-star resort had selected the site with panoramic views across the M4 to … Llanwern Steelworks. 

Well, roll forward a couple of decades and that vista is mightily changed. 
T

he opening, if it ever happens, of the M4 Relief Road, skirting the south of the city, could turn the existing M4 into a minor road with the ensuing benefits of a lack of noise and related air pollution for near neighbours; the Celtic Manor Resort and ICC Wales among them.

Keeping to the theme of Sir Terry Matthews and development. The Welsh billionaire recently added a further billion to his wealth with the sale of the telecommunications business he established in 1972, Mitel.

That’s a lot of cash.

In the West Country, near Truro to be precise, there are moves to create a ‘Stadium for Cornwall’. The £14.3m idea has fired the imagination of Cornwall County Council, which has earmarked £3m to support the proposed 6,000-seater, multi sport-stadium.

The Celtic Manor landed the 2010 Ryder Cup on a course specifically designed and built with the world famous golf tournament in mind. 

Could Sir Terry be persuaded to use just some of his new-found wealth to construct a purpose-built sports stadium for Gwent? What a legacy that would be for one of Gwent’s finest. 

Home to the Dragons and Newport County AFC but it could also be a venue for, say, the European Cup final or even a future Commonwealth Games? The idea would be that the stadium would be built anywhere in Gwent.

The Sir Terry Matthews Stadium has a certain ring to it.

To that end, where are all the people who will be attracted to Newport for events at the ICC Wales or, in future, at the Sir Terry Matthews Memorial Stadium going to stay? Cardiff or Bristol?

Well, sadly we’re bereft of bed space in Newport. Perhaps a start could be made with the construction of a new hotel on the former Sainsbury’s site in Crindau now cleared by owners the Fear Group, on the market and ripe for re development? 

It wouldn’t solve all our hotel needs but it would certainly be step in the right direction. It could act as a catalyst for others to bring schemes forward – including mooted schemes at Celtic Springs Business Park, Chartist Tower and Celtic Manor’s plans for another hotel in Langstone.

The ‘Knitting Needles’ Millennium Footbridge looks marvellous after its recent spring clean. Judging by the daredevil lengths the people completing the work on the footbridge went to is it any wonder it had to be closed on safety grounds for a short while?

I hope all those complaining at its closure are now doing a roaring trade now it’s been refurbished.

On the matter of bridges. What of all this nonsense about the naming of the Second Severn Crossing? Firstly it already has a name – Croeso – which no one uses. And secondly naming it the Prince of Wales is another name no one will use. And thirdly, did anyone ask England?

And while we’re talking Severn bridges; what’s the plan for the original bridge from Aust to Chepstow?

I wonder what odds you’d get for it going the way of the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland? When the new crossing opened, cars and lorries were banned and it is now open for use just by emergency vehicles, public transport, tractors, motorbikes, pedestrians and cyclists.

Talking of naming bridges, the new bridge across the Forth, after a public vote, was named the Queensferry Crossing but, apparently, local wags call it Kevin.