Concern expressed over ‘white elephant’ former bus station site

Anthony Lewis, local democracy reporter

Concern has been voiced about a “white elephant” open space on the site of Merthyr Tydfil’s former bus station that can’t hold larger-scale events because of a weight restriction on the land and the layout of the site

The reason for there not being larger events on the Glebeland site in the town centre was revealed at a recent meeting on a Thriving Merthyr Tydfil council scrutiny meeting on Tuesday, September 23, which was discussing the council’s events policy.

Responding to a question from committee chair Councillor Lee Davies on what the plan is for the site council officer Zoe Thomas said there is a weight restriction on the site due to the surfacing and the layout doesn’t necessarily work for larger events.

£1m development

A £1m development of the site which used to house the town’s bus station saw it turned into an open space for smaller-scale events such as markets and community events.

Ms Thomas said the council was clear when it went out to consultation that it would be for smaller-scale events and that Penderyn Square would remain the key site for larger scale events such as the Christmas lights switch-on and the food festival.

She said they’ve been working to ramp up the number of events on the site with the St Tydfil’s shopping centre team having responsibility for events there and she said there is a plan for events between now and the end of the financial year.

Councillor Geraint Thomas, the former leader of the council, said a year last August they were having meetings talking about the Glebeland site being a major events site and they were talking about things like Christmas lights switch-ons.

He asked when that all changed and when did it become a smaller site as he said it was always the plan of that administration to make it the major events area in the town centre.

Smaller-scale site

Ms Thomas said they’d always identified it as a smaller-scale site and at the request of the administration then they looked at whether they could relocate the Christmas events there.

But she said there were a number of constraints that were limiting them in holding that event there.

She said the site layout doesn’t necessarily work of larger events and that they have weight restrictions due to the surfacing which limit what can be held on there.

She said the infrastructure around Penderyn Square works so much better because there’s enough space to hold the amount of people that attend events.

Cllr Lee Davies said: “We were led to believe it was going to be one thing and it’s turned into something else.

“We were led to believe there was going to be big events on there.

“It is a bit of a concern when so much money was spent and it is a little bit of a white elephant at the moment.”

Zoe Thomas said they’re looking to host as many events there on as many weekends as they can albeit smaller-scale events.

She said when there’s a large event in Penderyn Square they always complement that by running an activity in the shopping centre anyway so they’d still look to put something on in Glebeland so they’ve got that complete flow in town.