Pontypridd: A Planning Odyssey

This dossier is about a sequential historical commentary since 1983, regarding the planning adventure in Pontypridd Town Centre with no horizons in sight or an end to the journey.

It is a commentary which hopefully exposes the frustrations and pitfalls of a sequential planning approach to a small town like Pontypridd.

We say frustration because all that is required to develop a small, but strategic county town like Pontypridd is to allow the planning act and regulations regarding individual development proposals, which are acceptable to the people of Pontypridd, to go ahead in a logical and unfettered manner, with the aim of regeneration and improvement to the town's infrastructure. We must retain and conserve all that is good with regard to the legacy of the past, relative to the townscape with it's Victorian and Edwardian architecture, and the magnificent green belt of Ynysangharad War Memorial Park, a very important legacy to the people of Pontypridd and a respected historical feature in its own right.

The Park complements the river and the town. There should be no more encroachment by developers for commercial gain, as is outlined in the Section 106 agreement between RCT (dated 9 December 2004), and Fountains Walk Ltd, Fountains Walk Trustees Ltd and the Bank of Scotland. We refer to the ninth schedule of the agreement which refers to car park charges once the car park is placed on the Day Centre site; this presumably will have to be acquired by a Compulsory Purchase Order some time in the future for the developers.

Some of the documents described in the following timeline are not published, but were made available to Y Celteiddwyr through the application of the Freedom of Information Act, and the timeline therefore holds credibility and integrity of research.

The document presents a retrospective vision into past planning mistakes which are due to a sequential planning approach which has been extremely frustrating for the people of Pontypridd, because the great vision presumably held by our Public Servants has not been what we, or they envisaged. The cost to the public purse is disproportionate relative to the cost to the Angharad Walk Vision.

Timeline is currently in MS Word document format and will be released in chronological order. Currently available are: 1980's, 1990's, 2000 to 2004, January to April 2005 and May to June 2005. Please e-mail us  if a different file format is required.

Our sources are as follows:
Pontypridd Observer reports
Taff Ely and RCT Council Minutes
Individual documents and letters held in the public domain
Glamorgan Record Office
Pontypridd Library