Council to invest additional £9.9m into local services

Bridgend County Borough Council’s capital investment programme is set to receive a £9.9m boost to support the delivery of local services.

The programme, which was previously approved by Council in February 2022 and already included an additional £2m for highways infrastructure, is to be expanded to feature a wide range of new investments after proposals were agreed for investing additional grants from Welsh Government, external Section 106 funding and previous budget underspends.

More than £1.5m will be directed towards the resurfacing and refurbishment of local roads and pavements over the coming year, and an extra £500,000 will be used to bring more unadopted roads up to a standard that will enable them to be added to the council’s maintainable highways network.

The Telecare transformation project, which provides a wide range of equipment and devices designed to support older and vulnerable people living at home, will receive £1.4m to support its upgrade from analogue to digital technology, while £500,000 will be directed towards the ongoing community asset transfer programme which is supporting local organisations to manage and invest into popular facilities.

More than £4.35m will be invested into three local schools with the development of a £1.8m block of six all-new classrooms at Bryntirion Comprehensive, a £1.65m new four-classroom extension at Coety Primary, and a £900,000 new two-classroom extension at Pencoed Primary.

The planned £2.1m regeneration of Cosy Corner in Porthcawl will receive an additional £684,000 to provide additional public realm improvements, landscaping and children’s play facilities. Meanwhile, ongoing efforts to provide an all-new road bridge at Penprysg Road in Pencoed as part of the Cardiff Capital Region Metro Plus Scheme will be boosted by £500,000 funding.

Finally, the council’s children’s playground refurbishment programme, which is providing communities with new modern play facilities at more than a hundred different sites throughout the county borough, will receive an extra £500,000.

This new investment is just over £9.9m in total and includes major improvements and additional facilities at several local schools as well as enabling additional support for the local highways network, playground refurbishments, bringing unadopted roads up to a maintainable standard and more.

It will also support our most vulnerable residents within their own homes and ensure that they remain safe and secure, and are protected by a system that is tailored to meet their needs.

With almost 50 per cent of the total cost of these schemes secured from external funding, the expanded investment programme will result in a more efficient use of council resources, reduced maintenance costs, improved services for local residents and much more.

Councillor Hywel Williams, Cabinet Member for Resources