RCT parks and play areas get £750,000 funding boost

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council has approved an extra £750,000 for parks, country parks and play areas, taking its stated investment across those open spaces to £4 million this financial year.

What the money can fund

The programme includes new and upgraded play areas, sensory and accessible equipment, new safety surfacing and fencing, and better access. The council also plans to rebuild skate parks in Ystrad and Beddau.

Other eligible work includes paths, car parks, fencing, toilets, clubhouses, sports pitches, stands and changing rooms. The release does not allocate the full £4 million between named sites, so it is not yet possible to show how much each community will receive.

How the headline figure is built

The council says an existing £3.3 million scheme has received a further £750,000. Those two figures total £4.05 million, while the authority describes the combined programme as £4 million. Cover Wales is treating the published £4 million as a rounded total rather than changing it to a more precise figure the council did not use.

Splash pads are separate

The same council package includes £800,000 for two new splash pads at Ynysangharad War Memorial Park in Pontypridd and Gelligaled Park in Ystrad. The Pontypridd plan remains subject to approval by the park subcommittee. The splash-pad allocation is separate from the £4 million parks and play-area total.

Part of a wider package

The parks decision sits within a wider set of one-off 2026/27 allocations. The amounts listed by the council add up to £12.135 million, led by £3.5 million for highways and roads and £3 million each for the Llanharan Sustainable Transport Corridor and Cynon Gateway North.