Swansea Barrage Swansea Barrage The Swansea barrage (or the Tawe barrage) was completed in 1992 creating a new marina at the mouth of the River Tawe extending the leisure boat facilities already being offered by the old South Dock. The barrage structure includes a boat lock, spillway, fish pass and generator turbine. The turbine serves a dual use: acting as a power generator for the National Grid as well as being used to pump water back into the Tawe river system. The barrage scheme gave rise to a number of environmental concerns. Fish navigation up the river and dissolved oxygen levels were
Swansea in 1969, which was inherited by the Swansea district when it was formed by the merger of the borough and Gower Rural District in 1974. In 1996, Swansea became one of 22 unitary authorities with the addition of part of the former Lliw Valley Borough. The new authority received the name 'City and County of Swansea' (). Swansea was once a staunch stronghold of the Labour Party which, until 2004, had overall control of the council for 24 years. The Liberal Democrats were the largest group in the administration that took control of Swansea Council in the 2004 local elections