New park and ride still on the agenda

Bridgend County Borough Council has confirmed that it still intends to deliver an improved park and ride facility for Pyle despite recent news announcing that funding for the project is being invested into a new Metro bus facility instead.

The status of the park and ride has been updated and reclassed as a longer-term goal for the authority after difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic meant that it could not be delivered within the limits of the current City Deal funding programme.

Instead, the funding will be invested into the all-new bus facility project which is being developed at Salt Lake in Porthcawl to link in with the wider regional Metro network for visitors and residents.

Plans for the new bus facility are in development and feature a modern canopy and shelter design with digital information boards, room for around four bus bays, capacity for accommodating electric vehicles and more.

The facility forms part of the metro enhancement framework for the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal, which is seeking to develop improved links between Maesteg, Bridgend, Porthcawl and Cardiff as part of a pipeline of future transport projects.

Other active projects within the programme include a replacement road bridge at Pencoed that will allow the level crossing to be closed, and the additional installation of an improved bridge suitable for both pedestrians and active travel purposes.

Faced with unavoidable pandemic delays in being able to secure land surveys, ground investigations and the potential acquisition of privately-owned land, delivering the improved park and ride facilities we had planned for Pyle within the requirements and time limits of the funding programme proved to be impossible.

Instead, the council has liaised with City Deal partners to ensure that we can invest the current round of funding into the Metro bus facility while still keeping the plans for the Pyle park and ride alive as a longer-term goal. We have informed the local members for the Porthcawl, Cornelly and Pyle areas and can assure everyone that our goal remains the same - for the two projects to interact together, and to provide a hugely enhanced overall service for the area.

The bus interchange is currently going through a detailed design stage, and I am looking forward to seeing how the funding will enable it to develop further. We will be going out to public consultation prior to submitting a planning application, so look out for more news on this soon.

Councillor Stuart Baldwin, Cabinet Member for Communities