Rhydycar West, Merthyr Tydfil

Peter Waldren leads the multi-disciplinary team coordinating and delivering an outline application for mixed use development at this 575 acre site on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil. The development will include the UK's largest indoor snow facility which, at 400m long, will provide a base for the Welsh and national BG ski teams as well as an unrivalled facility for leisure users.  Other facilities include an adventure water park, zip lines, mountain coasters and indoor and outdoor leisure along with over 400 hotel rooms and 80 glamping lodges.  The development will provide a year round leisure facility to complement other adventure tourism facilities in the locality.

Challenges include ecology (part of the site being a SSSI), heritage (the industrial legacy of the site resulting in a number of Scheduled Ancient Monuments and an historic landscape designation) as well as topography, hydrology and the mining legacy of the site generally.  Peter's involvement has been to engage with the LPA, advise on the evolution of the development and scope and coordinate the required Environmental Statement and outline application.  Work on the project is on going.

Image by courtesy of Holder Mathias Architects.