Plans are creeping on for Wales’ biggest ski slope. The Rhydacar West development is set to be one of the biggest sporting projects Wales has ever seen, and is hoped to bring millions into the local economy. Lyn, who’s been a part of the project for years, gave us a tour of the site.
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00:00I think we're hoping so. Who knows, we might have the next Olympic gold medalist coming
00:06from the Valleys and that would be fantastic.
00:08I'm here just close to the top of what could soon become the UK's longest ski slope.
00:14Where we're actually at right here is at the beginning of the snow centre, which is going
00:20to be going west of where we are now. And just to the east here is the entrance to the
00:27site.
00:28The site at Riddikar West is set to be full of different attractions on top of the massive
00:32ski slope and is hoped to become a real centre for snow sports across Wales and for the whole
00:36of the UK.
00:37There are three hotels, one of them being a sports hotel, a resort hotel, a spa hotel
00:46and then that all interconnects with the snow centre and with the tropical water park. We
00:52also have connected an adventure centre as well, which has got both outdoor and indoor
01:00elements to that particular attraction.
01:03For such a huge project it clearly needed the support of local councillors and locals
01:07to go ahead. And Lynn says through the years the project has been ticking on, locals have
01:12certainly gotten behind it and are excited for what it could bring.
01:16I think it's been overwhelming positive support for the project from the community. We've
01:23seen that in the weeks and days leading up to the planning meeting where there was a
01:28petition where thousands signed a petition in support of the project. But leading up
01:32to that we had a survey which was ongoing for a number of years and there were thousands
01:37who participated in that survey. And we've seen, I think it was a 95% plus support for
01:44the project. So there's no doubt that people in Merthyr want this project and we need
01:48this project.
01:49The plans have certainly not come without their controversies though and one of them
01:53is the natural environment here that it will be built on. It comes with a number of SSSI's,
01:59Sites of Specific Scientific Interest. But Lynn says they have worked with all partners
02:03and the council are giving it the green light just a few weeks ago.
02:06There's a lot of work that's gone into this with statutory bodies such as NRW, Natural
02:12Resources Wales, Cadw as well. So there's a lot of thought in how this development has
02:18been put in place to protect biodiversity and historical sites. In fact, there's going
02:24to be, I'd say in terms of the heritage, we've actually scheduled monitorments with Cadw
02:31ourselves. They've sort of deemed it to be an enhancement and a net benefit for access
02:38to heritage on the site because we're going to make it more accessible and enhance them
02:43on the site because apart from that there's going to be heritage trails.
02:48Part of skiing is the beautiful surroundings you'll find yourself in and what better than
02:51that behind me over Merthyr Tydfil. So Italy, France, Switzerland, you can keep your Alps.
02:56Merthyr Tydfil is going to be the new skiing hotspot.