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A councillor has called for levelling-up funding in the north of the borough after a £20 million investment was confirmed for Caerphilly town.
As part of the UK Government’s Levelling-Up fund, Caerphilly County Borough Council has been awarded money to build a new leisure centre in Caerphilly town.
Labour councillor Carl Cuss, who represents the Twyn Carno ward, made the comment on Twitter after a Rhymney resident raised the point that this specific investment wouldn’t benefit all borough residents due to its location.
This comes despite councillors such as Cllr Carol Andrews, who represents Gilfach, suggesting that those higher up in the valley will benefit from the leisure centre’s proximity to the train station.
On Twitter, Lynette Prosser, who lives in Rhymney, wrote about the new leisure centre and said: “Great news if you live in Caerphilly. What about the road between Pontlottyn and New Tredegar – still looking for funding I expect or do you have shares in the company that owns the traffic lights?”
In the same Twitter thread, Christina Harrhy, Chief Executive of Caerphilly County Borough Council, confirmed that funding for the road would possibly come from Welsh Government as a bid has been submitted.
The road, the A469, links New Tredegar and Pontlottyn and has required improvements since 2020 when ground movement was detected after Storm Dennis – the road has been reduced to a single lane ever since.
Cllr Cuss wrote back to Ms Harrhy and said: “Residents have waited long enough for this road to be funded and brought back to standards. I hope for a quick announcement on this.
“With regard to Levelling Up – I seriously think the north should be considered, something I’ve said many many times.”
Council deputy leader Jamie Pritchard responded and said: “We’ve bid to WG [Welsh Government] for funding and we’re in continual discussion with them.
“If there’s a perception that we aren’t making the case for this road to be brought back up to standard, then that is not the reality.”
In response, Cllr Cuss referred to the length of time it has taken to repair the road. The levelling-up bids were announced in June 2022 yet the road has been damaged since February 2020.
Cllr Cuss said: “But when you look at the length of time it makes people think when you see all of these other funding announcements. There needs to be a much quicker resolution to the issues we face, we are talking several years here not months.”
In an updated statement on levelling-up, Cllr Cuss told Caerphilly Observer: “I am pleased for the south of the Borough for this investment and the various other announcements they have had to date including town centre improvements and events that the council puts on in the south. However, I feel it is about time the Council starts focussing on the North of the borough when it comes to schemes like this because residents are rightly feeling ignored.
“It’s not that we are not raising this because we are. The A469 between Pontlottyn and New Tredegar has been an ongoing saga since 2014, I know the scheme is complex and the council are ready to go but we are now waiting for a funding decision from Welsh Government.
“For the next round of funding, I am urging the Council to get oven-ready plans to submit things like improving the leisure offer in the north of the valley possibly at Idris Davies bringing equality to the same sort of provision they get in the south, enhance Parc Cwm Darran, regenerate Rhymney High Street, expand our industrial areas to bring more jobs, this is just on top of my head but its something I hope the leadership will look at.”
A full list of the levelling-up funds can be found here.
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