THE PLANNED Cynon Gateway road scheme is “absolutely essential”, the leader of the council has said.
Councillor Andrew Morgan, leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) Council, said the Cynon Gateway is one of the bids they’ve put in to Welsh Government for next year in terms of feasibility and they need around £500,000 for the next stage so they’ve put a £400,000 bid in to Welsh Government and put in £100,000 of council funding.
At a meeting of RCT’s overview and scrutiny committee on Monday, March 24, he said: “I do hope that scheme will be supported.”
Cllr Morgan said: “My view is that the Cynon Gateway is absolutely essential. It was essential at the time when the agreement was to dual the Heads of the Valleys.”
He mentioned how the planning inspector had said that the dualling of the Heads of the Valleys should not go ahead without the agreement of the road scheme because the removal of the Hirwaun roundabout and people having to travel up to the next roundabout which was known as the Rhigos roundabout would add seven miles on to a journey up and back.
Cllr Morgan said that the only alternative is to go through Llwydcoed and that data from Welsh Government showed that 3,500 cars a day extra would go through Llwydcoed.
He said he’d pushed for that scheme to be included and it is certainly in the council’s proposal as part of the regional transport plan that that scheme should be delivered in the next five years.
Cllr Morgan said part of the key criteria of the regional transport plan is what is affordable in the next five years and what is deliverable in the next five years.
He said the other scheme they’re taking forward as part of the regional transport plan is the Llanharan corridor with £400,000 recently secured for the next stage in the coming year.
