Rhondda Cynon Taf Council has successfully obtained £3.185m of capital funding from the Welsh Government to deliver yet more improvements to education facilities across Rhondda Cynon Taf.

Following Cabinet’s approval the funding, which comes from the total £40m of support to Welsh Local Authorities under the Schools and Education Programme Capital Maintenance Grant to help address capital maintenance pressures at schools, will supplement the Council’s ongoing programme of school improvements being delivered across the 2019/20 financial year – through the £6.886m Education and Inclusion Services capital programme.

A number of significant projects will now be supported by the grant funding in 2019/20. These include the creation of a brand new all-weather 3G pitch for Treorchy Comprehensive School which, like all of the Council’s other 3G pitches, will be made available for community use; improvements to the swimming pool at Ferndale Community School; a replacement flat roof and refurbishments to the pupil toilets at Bryncelynnog Comprehensive School and upgrades to the classrooms and schools yard at Pengeulan Primary School.

Councillor Joy Rosser, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, said:

“I am pleased that the Council has been able to secure this significant capital funding grant from the Welsh Government to carry out further improvements to schools across the County Borough. “The continuation of the school modernisation programme is making substantial improvements to education facilities throughout RCT, and the sustained investment over a number of financial years has vastly improved the quality of school environments that our young people and the wider community can benefit from. “It is our intention to provide the very best education facilities to as many communities as possible, and this grant funding will now support the improvements scheduled to be delivered under the Council’s £6.886m Education and Inclusion Services capital programme for 2019/20. “I’m sure that pupils in Treorchy and the upper Fawr area will be eagerly anticipating the delivery of the new 3G pitch on the school site, and I know from visiting a number of other schools where these artificial surfaces have been created, that they are a hugely popular facility for not only the pupils to use, but also the wider community as well.”

The announcement that a new all-weather 3G facility will be constructed in Treorchy means that upon its completion, the Council will have delivered 14 artificial pitches across the entire County Borough, and that the ambition to provide every resident with access to a 3G facility within three miles of where they live will have been met.

The 12th facility at YG Rhydywaun recently opened in time for pupils returning after the Easter break, whilst work continues to progress on the delivery of the facility at Bryncelynnog Comprehensive School.