Plans to create a bicycle pump track off Station Road and Taff Street in Ferndale can now be viewed. The recreational facility is proposed as an end use for a Receptor Site used as part of the Tylorstown Landslip remediation.
Residents can now view key documents for the proposal on the Council’s Planning Portal, including a detailed Design, Access and Planning Statement produced by consultants Redstart, on behalf of the Council. It forms part of a planning application to restore the site and secure a new permanent use.
The site is located off Station Road near the boundary with Blaenllechau. It has been used as ‘Receptor Site A1’ – where material that had slipped from the Llanwonno Upper Tip in Storm Dennis (February 2020) was temporarily deposited and held as part of the Tylorstown Landslip Remediation Plan.
The plans have now been formally submitted by the Council. Find out more about the proposals, and have your say, on the Council’s online Planning Portal (using application number ‘24/1049/GREG’).
The proposed development would use a 9,625m2 area of land to incorporate the pump track as well as areas of drainage, landscaping and habitat creation. The track would form around a quarter of this overall site.
The facility would be a hard-surfaced cycle track for use by BMX style bikes, as well as balance bikes and scooters. It would occupy part of the sloped valley side and also an adjacent section of flatter ground. The track itself would include straights, banked turns, cambered turns and bumps – with the several undulations and embankments created by the addition of imported material. The pump track itself would be surrounded by low fencing.
A short community link would be provided to the nearby path – Route 881 of the National Cycle Network, which is currently being enhanced in Phase Four of the Rhondda Fach Active Travel Route.
The majority of the application site will be left to naturally regenerate. The drainage element would intercept run-off from the track and the site as a whole – using a combination of filter drains, and open drainage channel, and an attenuation swale. These would restrict rates to no more than the existing run-off, and would comply with Sustainable Drainage System principles.
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure, said: “The planning application for a new bicycle pump track in Ferndale has now been submitted, and will go through the statutory planning process. This means that residents can view the plans and have their say on them, before officers prepare the application report to be formally considered by the Planning and Development Committee.
“If agreed, the development would create a community facility that promotes outdoor leisure – while also finding a permanent use for this area of land which was used as a Receptor Site for the Tylorstown Landslip remediation. It would complement the ongoing investment in the Rhondda Fach Active Travel Route, with Phase Four of the shared pathway passing the site nearby.
“I’d urge local residents who are interested in finding out more to access the planning documents and have their say on what is proposed. This will inform the formal consideration of the application at a future planning meeting.”
