Rhondda Cynon Taf Council - Leader's Blog

As the start of the summer holidays draws closer, the Council is gearing up for a busy period in delivering a range of projects across the County Borough.  Hopefully we can have a repeat of last year’s glorious weather and this will not only allow us to make good progress with our projects, but also enable residents to make use of the fantastic outdoor attractions and facilities already available across the County Borough.

An integral part of our drive to create a healthy and active RCT is our continued investment in outdoor sporting facilities, and residents in the Beddau area are now the latest to be able to benefit from this after the new outdoor, all-weather sports facility at Bryncelynnog Comprehensive was this week handed over to the school.  As with our other 3G surfaces, the Bryncelynnog development will shortly be made available for wider community use as well. 

This will be the 13^th such facility to be delivered under #RCTInvest, following on from the recently-opened 3G pitch in YG Rhydywaun, and we have also recently announced plans to construct an additional surface in Treorchy.  Once these two surfaces in Beddau and Treorchy have been fully delivered, we will have achieved our ambitious target of providing every resident in the County Borough with access to an outdoor 3G sports surface within a 3-mile radius of their home.

The facility at Bryncelynnog also comes with the added benefit of an athletics track around the 3G pitch’s perimeter, and this is due to be completed next week after the markings have been laid.  This will mean that we have now completed work on delivering two outdoor athletics facilities here in RCT, after the Ron Jones Stadium in Aberdare opened in September 2018.  To build on this, work has recently started on delivering significant improvements to the King George V track in Tonypandy through a £500,000 investment to ensure that all three of our principal areas each house their own outdoor athletics facility.  I’m sure that many other Local Authorities will be envious of this achievement.

To complement this, we are also investing £1.8m in our parks, play areas, recreation grounds and green spaces over the course of this financial year.  At £1m for parks and green spaces, this represents an unprecedented level of investment in this area and this is certainly something we will look to build on in future financial years.  Some of the larger schemes to be completed during this financial year are at Pentre Park, Bronwydd Park, Hirwaun Recreation Ground, Hawthorn Recreation Ground, and Aberdare Park - where we have already delivered significant improvements through a programme of investment aimed at enhancing the visitor offer and restoring many of the original features of the Park.  The ever-popular Park celebrated its 150^th anniversary over the weekend, and it was great to see so many joining in with the festivities.