Port Talbot: Film company holds out jobs hope for ex-steelworkers

Paul Wagstaffe is one of thousands of Tata employees and contractors who will not have a job at the steelworks by the end of the year.

“I’d be interested in a job with the film industry, either as a set builder or even in the background as an actor or something like that,” he said.

“We don’t know if there’ll be work for us for another few months, so [we] have to turn our hands to something different and look at different avenues,” he said.

Another steelworker, Aled Humphries, who is also part of Port Talbot’s amateur dramatics scene, said: “If the future of heavy industry is you require better technology and less people to produce the same quality and volume of product, then that’s just a fact of life.

“We’ll then need to find other opportunities for people and what better way than for Port Talbot to look towards the creative industries.”