£7m Proposed Investment in Rhondda Cynon Taf Infrastructure and Public Spaces

Almost £7m could be spent on things like roads, flood works, parks and bins in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) if agreed by councillors.
A report to cabinet on Thursday, September 19 proposes investment of £6.95m in areas such as highways and roads, the Llanharan link road, flood alleviation works, parks and green spaces, bus shelter repairs and bins.
The spend will include £2.5m on highways and roads, £2.25m on repairs and maintenance to structures including bridges, culverts, retaining walls, reinforced earth embankments and rock anchors and £1m for the Llanharan sustainable transport corridor focusing on the Llanharan Link Road which has been redesigned to include public transport and active travel after it was paused during the Welsh Government roads review.
This spend also includes £400,000 for parks and green spaces with refurbishment of sports pavilions, upgrading of sports pitches and repairs to parks infrastructure.
There will be £250,000 spent on small scale flood alleviation works and £250,000 on the council’s Making Better Use programme and traffic developments which involve tackling congestion, pinch points and improving road safety by using existing road space to provide additional capacity.
There will be £150,000 for “green teams” which will focus on work to tackle targeted overgrowth, £75,000 will go towards community facilities energy grants to support energy cost pressures being felt across not for profit community based facilities and £50,000 will go towards bus shelter repairs.
Finally £25,000 will go towards streetcare improvements which will involve new bins in public spaces.
The council’s unaudited draft statement of accounts for the year ending March 31, 2024 showed that the council had revenue stream earmarked reserves of £77.4m which are set aside for a number of purposes.
There are  also specific reserves relating to funding for the existing capital programme plus future investment and infrastructure.
The investment/infrastructure reserve is a specific reserve to fund the cost of
maintaining and enhancing infrastructure across the county borough.
At March 31, 2024 there was £22.7m in this so the report said that this £6.95m spend can be fully funded from this reserve. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

By BBC LDRS ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​