MERTHYR TYDFIL | Projects & Construction

[jeremai]

Following on from discussion in the Wales thread, here is the Merthyr projects and construction thread! This is just a start, so please add any other developments that you are aware of.

Cyfarthfa Retail Park
Size: 23,000 square metres
Status: Completed (2005)
I'm including this despite it having been open for a few years because I think it's significant to Merthyr re-establishing itself as a regional hub. As much as I dislike out of town retail sheds and their effect on town centres, this park seriously boosts Merthyr's retail offering. The B&Q here is enormous, several times larger than a standard store.

http://www.merthyr.gov.uk/Home/News/...ally+Opens.htm


Welsh Assembly Government Building
Size: 450 person office building
Status: Completed (2006)
The WAG chose Merthyr to "spread the economic benefits of working for the assembly across Wales" (BBC article). This is a "green building", scoring a 71% BREEAM rating.

http://www.building.co.uk/sustain_st...de=3115420&c=3


Rhydycar Leisure Park
Size: 18 acres
Status: Under Construction (2008/9)
Merthy's "flagship" development, the £25m leisure park will include:

• 100,000 sq ft leisure centre to replace the existing Rhydycar Leisure Centre
• 8 screen Vue cinema
• 58-room Travelodge
• Restaurants including Frankie and Benny's and Nando's
• Possible ten pin bowling
• Skateboard park

Although built, to include 700 parking spaces, this is a mixed-use development including town houses and apartments, and is walkable from the town centre.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ifs_new...00/5274448.stm


High Street Regeneration
Status: Under Construction (2008)
The repaving of the High Street has run months over schedule and has been accused of damaging the town centre by causing small businesses to close. However, when complete, the paving will continue across a "traffic table" over Swan Street, linking the lower portion of the High Street to create a new "Cafe Quarter".


Trago Mills
Size: 120 acres
Status: Under Construction (2009/10)
Little-known outside of Devon and Cornwall, Trago Mills have chosen Merthyr for the fourth of their unique discount department store and leisure park combinations. The 150,000 sq ft superstore will be complemented with:

• Boating lake
• Karting track
• Wildlife area
• Play areas
• Restaurant
• Petrol station

In my opinion, this is a suburban development being built for cars. It is separated from the town centre by the A470 and includes a massive 2,200-car parking provision.

http://www.trago.co.uk/content/129/m...ydfilpage.html


Merthyr Village
Size: 550 acres
Status: Proposed
This contentious site sits west of the A470 and Rhydicar and south of the Trago Mills site. A £700m proposal for 2,000 homes, a shopping complex and business park was rejected in January 2007 due to "adverse effects on conservation, historical sites and town centre regeneration" (BBC article). A current plan for 650 homes on part of the site is currently pending planning permission, with "an officer recommendation to turn it down as premature" (WalesOnline article).

http://www.themartyrs.com/newspane2002-3.htm


Old Town Hall
Status: Proposed (2010)
Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association bought the derelict Old Town Hall for £650,000 with plans to turn it into offices and a cafe. However, the plans proved to be too expensive and they came up with a new £11.5m arts and cultural centre plan. It would include a 450-500 seat auditorium, workshops, restaurant, possible recording studio and a small museum (WalesOnline article).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast...hepast.shtml?4

[KyleP]

Well done for creating the post.

Merthyr has great potential to be a thriving centre of the valleys if it only received the right amount of investment in terms of commercial development AND (probably more importantly) some way of addressing it's many social problems.

At the turn of the last century it had a bigger population than Newport. If it had continued to develop it could well be around the size of Newport or Swansea by now.

[jeremai]

The Vue cinema at Rhydycar opens this Friday! I hadn't even realised it was complete already.

Looks good:

[cardiff]

I thought they got rid of superior seats with the old odeon in the capitol center. Good to see Merthyr getting better.

[hsc-online]

These projects looks quite excellent and awesoem . I think this group is looking for the huge investiemnts as well even. This needs an good budget for the peopel. But, the prices were in decresing order . So, wait and see still the prices more decrese even.

[jeremai]

Hard sell for prison site
Oct 23 2008 by Jackie Bow, Merthyr Express

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/so...1466-22092649/

TALKS have been held with the Ministry of Justice in a bid to see a prison built in Merthyr Tydfil.

Council leader Jeff Edwards, chief executive Alistair Neill, estates manager Mark Taylor and Jill Shuker, director of corporate centre, met ministry officials last week to put Merthyr’s case for the new project to solve the shortage of prison space in Wales.

“We gave our views on what it would mean for Merthyr in terms of regeneration and long-term jobs,” said Coun Edwards.
“We were told it would probably be a category B closed prison.”

Merthyr was one of four locations – two in North Wales and the other in Cwmbran – identified as potential sites for a new prison, which could have 900 inmates, with a separate areas for women and young offenders. The 29-acre Merthyr site, at Goat Mill Road, Dowlais, is seen as the leading option.

The Assembly has proposed a new site should help the regeneration of the Heads of the Valleys.

“We’ve got the backing of Torfaen Council because they don’t want a prison in the middle of the town. If it was located outside they would be fighting us tooth and nail,” said Coun Edwards.

[robb01]

It looks great!

[jeremai]

What Credit Crunch? As Trago plans bigger store
Oct 30 2008 by Jackie Bow, Merthyr Express

A BIGGER Trago Mills store could be on its way to Merthyr Tydfil.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/so...1466-22144739/

Work on the discount shopping and family leisure complex promising 350 jobs had been anticipated to start last month.

But a new planning application is being lodged with the council to increase the shopping area by a third, from 150,000 sq ft to 200,000 sq ft of retail space to bring the Merthyr project in line with the two sites in the south west of England.

The leisure park attractions at the120-acre former Heolgerrig brickworks site at Swansea Road will include a boating lake and karting track, wildlife area, outdoor and indoor play areas and restaurant

Warehousing, offices, a petrol station and car parking are also planned.

Some £12m has already been spent on transforming and preparing the land for the regional superstore scheme, which had been estimated to cost £36m before the plans to extend the footprint.

Malcolm Sandbach, group managing director of Trago Mills, said the decision had been taken to upsize at this stage rather than extend at some later date.

He said: “We decided to have a look at the Cyfarthfa Retail Park. It has already helped Merthyr a lot in attracting people from outside so we decided on that basis that, instead of building a 150,000 sq ft shop, we’d make it the same size as Liskeard and Newton Abbott.

“We have had some talks with the council and we are just lodging a new application to extend it and hopefully there won’t be a problem.

“I think everybody wants the full-size development.

“It will have the same basic ranges that we would carry but everything will just be that bit bigger and nicely spread out and it will be a nicer shopping experience.

“At the moment we run about 88,000 stock lines and we will be able to get those in comfortably.”

Mr Sandbach was unable to put a new figure on the cost of the super-sized development.

He said the building contract was expected to be awarded soon, adding: “We hope to make a start around Easter time next year.”

Trago Mills first expressed interest in expanding to Merthyr in 1987.

[jeremai]

Here we go again. Prisons, opencast coal mines, and now waste energy... Merthyr gets all the best projects!

On the other hand, there is already a landfill on this site which is surely less desirable than a waste energy plant? Also, every wind farm proposal in the area is met with protest. Where DO people think the energy to run their TVs and Wiis is going to come from when the coal runs out?

£400m waste-energy plant proposed

Around 500 construction jobs and 100 full time posts could be created under proposals for a new electricity-generating waste disposal plant.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7857210.stm

The planned £400m facility would be built in Merthyr Tydfil, next to the Ffos-y-Fran opencast mine site.

Covanta Energy said the plant, if given the go-ahead, would take waste from around Wales, transported by train.

But some local councillors say they are worried that the generator would be "another thing dumped on the town".

American-owned Covanta Energy, which said the plan could supply electricity for 180,000 homes, aims to apply for planning permission by the end of 2009.

If given the go-ahead from Merthyr Tydfil council, the plant - known as Brig y Cwm - could be operational by 2013/14, taking approximately 750,000 tonnes of waste a year from a number of sites around Wales.

Covanta Energy said the plant would greatly reduce the need for waste landfill sites and could provide electricity at "significantly below market rates" for neighbouring communities and businesses.

It said it would "maintain a policy of local resourcing and recruitment" at the facility and will begin a process of consultation with local people.

If given the green light, the plant would be built on low-lying land near to the opencast mine at Ffos-y-Fran.

Some residents living near the mine protested about it being sited near their homes and have said they are blighted by dust and noise.

But Covanta Energy insisted the new waste plant would not be visible to most local people and said that waste would be transported in sealed containers by rail.

Malcolm Chilton, Covanta Energy's UK managing director, pledged that the plant would operate cleanly and well within stringent environmental standards.

"The plant will greatly reduce the need for Welsh local authorities to send non-recyclable waste to landfill sites, some of which are due to close in the near future," he said.

"It will also help cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change - by displacing the carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuel generation and reducing long-term emissions of methane gas from landfill sites that will otherwise be required."

'Jobs not worthwhile'

But Councillor David Jones, whose ward would house the plant, said locals would feel they "were being used" again, following on from the Ffos-y-Fran mine being sited in the area.

"I don't think the opinion of the locals is being taken into consideration," he said.

Of the proposed jobs he said: "If it's bad for the town then the jobs aren't that worthwhile."

Councillor Amy Kitcher added: "I think a lot of people feel Merthyr gets everything dumped on it.

"We've had Ffos-y-Fran, the biggest opencast mine in Europe, and now we're getting Wales' largest energy-from-waste plant.

"We were told at the end of Ffos-y-Fran, which has a lifespan of 17 years, that it would be returned to its natural state, with parkland. I don't know how that will fit with an energy-from-waste plant being nearby."

The announcement follows detailed discussion between Covanta Energy, the Welsh Assembly Government and International Business Wales, its inward investment arm.

[jeremai]

Bitter disappointment as town misses out on boost from prison site

Feb 6 2009 by Jackie Bow, South Wales Echo

RESIDENTS and political leaders spoke of their “bitter disappointment” after the announcement that Merthyr Tydfil had missed out on being the site of a new prison.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/so...1466-22868180/

[jeremai]

Multi-million pound unit for Prince Charles Hospital

Feb 5 2009 by Samantha Mendez, Merthyr Express

A MULTIMILLION day-case surgery unit for Prince Charles Hospital has been given the go ahead by the Welsh Assembly Government.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/so...1466-22854867/

[jeremai]

A few photos from yesterday.

New(ish) signage:
image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremai/3261969117/

The restored fountain:
image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremai/3262793050/

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremai/3261965495/

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremai/3262793768/

New benches in the High Street:
image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremai/3261962775/

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremai/3261961285/

[cardiff]

Beautiful fountain, nice to see some civic pride in a town thats at best down at heal.

[jeremai]

Merthyr Tydfil leisure complex ‘will go ahead’
Jul 17 2009
by Jackie Bow, South Wales Echo

FEARS the recession could scupper a shopping and leisure complex planned for Merthyr Tydfil have been allayed by the company behind the project.

Council leaders have been told that Trago Mills still intends to press ahead with its £36m scheme on the former brickworks site on the outskirts of the town.

The assurances were made during a meeting with council leader Jeff Edwards and planning chairman Derek Games by group managing director Malcolm Sandbach.

The company has already received planning consent to build a 150,000sq ft regional superstore with warehousing facilities, a family leisure park, restaurant, petrol station and parking for 2,200 cars on the 120-acre site...

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/so...1466-24172805/

[Newcastle Historian]

Just spent some time in Merthyr, tracing my relatives.

What a great place it is, I loved it there.

Just found this excellent thread, but no news since July 2009. I'm sure there must be things going on to report?

[Newcastle Historian]

New-look care facilities open for hospital
by Kelly Miles, Merthyr Express, March 10th 2011


THE £22m state-of-the-art emergency care centre at Prince Charles Hospital opens next week.

Orthopaedic and fracture clinics will be the first service to start in the new centre on Monday (March 14).

The orthopaedic clinic opening will be closely followed on Wednesday by the transfer of the accident and emergency (A&E) department and GP admission services.

The new Merthyr Tydfil centre, which has been funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, aims to speed up treatment for patients and substantially improve the emergency care environment including improved privacy and dignity.

Facilities for staff to treat patients have also been improved.

A spokesman for Cwm Taf Local Health Board, which oversees the running of the hospital, said: “We would ask patients to note that for the next 12 months the A&E entrance for all patients – including ambulance emergencies, GP admissions and walk-ins – is at the left of the new building around the corner from the current A&E department.

“The nearest car park is at the front of the hospital, although people will be able to drop-off patients at the new entrance.

“The entrance for patients attending fracture or orthopaedic clinics is at the front of the hospital near the bus stop.”

This week saw the new equipment for the centre arrive and be tested, the signage changed, and areas being thoroughly cleaned as the final touches were put to the new department in time to open doors to the public.

The whole project is scheduled to finish next February (2012) when the services will finally move into their permanent accommodation.


Read More - http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/so...#ixzz1GLRLShXM

[Newcastle Historian]

110 jobs lost at valleys furniture factory
WalesOnline, March 11th 2011


SOUTH WALES’ manufacturing industry took another savage blow today as 110 jobs were axed at a family-run business.

For more than 60 years, Triumph have made corporate furniture out of its base in Abercanaid, Merthyr for the public and private sector.

But after the loss of the Hoover factory in 2009, the town has been rocked again.

Workers were called into an impromptu afternoon meeting and made redundant on the spot.

In a letter given to workers at the meeting, administrators for FRP Advisory confirmed the company was going into administration.

Workers, who will be paid their outdated wages and may be entitled to redundancy, were encouraged to immediately head to the job centre to register as unemployed.

FRP is now attempting to protect the remaining 186 staff at its Abercanaid and Tredegar sites


Read More - http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/so...#ixzz1GLRr1FsI

[jeremai]

Newcastle, thanks for the posts. Good to hear somebody say something positive about Merthyr for a change! I admit I haven't kept this thread up to date. Unfortunately the whole Wales section on SSC is a bit dead and so I stopped checking it regularly.

There is currently a public consultation about the waste energy plant. Trago Mills claim to still be coming to Merthyr, though no sign of anything happening yet. I'll post anything else I think of.

[Newcastle Historian]

Originally Posted by jeremai

Newcastle, thanks for the posts. Good to hear somebody say something positive about Merthyr for a change! I admit I haven't kept this thread up to date. Unfortunately the whole Wales section on SSC is a bit dead and so I stopped checking it regularly.

There is currently a public consultation about the waste energy plant. Trago Mills claim to still be coming to Merthyr, though no sign of anything happening yet. I'll post anything else I think of.

Would be good to follow a project through to completion. Trago Mills will do for me!

Their Website, HERE - http://www.trago.co.uk/ states that they have "recently completed a ground stabilisation project at its 120 acre site on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil", so Merthyr still seems to be part of their plans?

Wonder how old that statement on their website is though, could be 2007?

.

[Newcastle Historian]

A prime building for renovation and re-furbishment!!

This building is in the centre of Merthyr, just opposite (and to the right a bit) of the central library.

I took this photo last summer, mainly because I just couldn't believe how much "foliage" was growing out of the building, at so many different levels of it!!

I thought it was 'spectacular' for that reason, but it also seems a good building. in a prime location, that could look great if taken over and refurbished.

Does anyone know the history of it?