Written question WQ89196

The Rhondda Fach Active Travel route is a planned walking and cycling route between Maerdy and Tylorstown. The fully completed route will be 10.2km in length (including links) and will provide the opportunity for residents of Tylorstown, Blaenllechau, Ferndale and Maerdy to undertake active travel journeys for short trips to local facilities, and for longer distance journeys south to access services such as Porth railway station.

To make construction manageable, as well as dealing with land slip, the project has been split into 5 phases. Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council (RCTCBC) have made a “main scheme” funding bid for phases 1 and 2 to Welsh Government’s Active Travel Fund (ATF) which was approved and £1,940,000 were allocated for 2023/24.

Phases 1 and 2 will deliver a continuous 2.7km, 3m-wide off-road shared-use route for pedestrians and cyclists between Maerdy and Ferndale, broadly following the alignment of the former Porth to Maerdy railway. RCTCBC have also applied to use funding from their £1,050,000 ‘core allocation’ to further develop Phases 3-5 of the project.

The project is on-track.The tender for Phase 1 was completed and construction is on-going. For Phase 2 Sustainable Drainage approval has been secured and the land acquisition and planning approval is on-going.

Route design for the further phases is progressing as planned, but a potential shortfall in funding has been identified, because design costs are higher than anticipated.

The local authority will be able to provide a fuller update on its active travel schemes.