Start date on new £6m riverside plaza scheme for Pontypridd

Work transforming the former Marks & Spencer store site in the centre of Pontypridd to create a new £6m riverside plaza will start next month. The former M&S and Dorothy Perkins buildings, which had been empty since 2015, were demolished last year in preparation for the new development.

More than £5.6m of funding has been secured to develop the site into a proposed 'riverside plaza', which the council say will provide a functional and aesthetically-pleasing public space, and open the townscape towards the river for the first time in more than 100 years.

Part of the new 'riverside plaza' will also include small, lightweight kiosks (commercial units) that will offer the sale of food and drinks. It will also bring new green spaces of trees and foliage to the town centre.

The redevelopment is part of the Southern Gateway project, which also saw the old Bingo Hall aka Angharads, demolished and replaced by an area with new bus bays and more seating areas which was completed earlier this year. The project aims to transform the area into a key 'transitional space' for a new visitor route, linking the train station to the town centre via the bingo hall site.

Rhondda Cynon Taff Counciil aim for the new development to provide a new open space that is flexible enough to respond to new opportunities for the town centre. The £5.6m funding has been secured via contributions from the Welsh Government's Transforming Towns Programme (£3.68m) and the UK Government's Shared Prosperity Fund (£1.95m).

Flood modelling is being used to ensure that the majority of the site will be raised out of the flood zone after Taff Street and other areas of Pontypridd have been hit with flooding over the last few years, most recently in November during Storm Bert. The lane leading to Ynysangharad War Memorial Park, where the National Eisteddfod was held last summer, will also have enhanced resur