Recycled regeneration announcements from RCT Council
The local press this week has carried an article from RCT Council announcing their £12million investment plans in a series of schemes across the county.
Apparently they have decided they do not need quite so much in their reserve pot and along with savings form money which was earmarked for projects not carried out previously they have come up with an investment pot.
The Cabinet will meet this Thursday to allegedly debate the plans, although quite what they are debating and deciding upon is a mystery. The "Investment Priorities" report is very thin on detail. What, for example, will they be spending the £1.5 million devoted to the Taff Vale Precinct site in Pontypridd on?
The rest of the report contains a number of initiatives which, whilst welcome overall, have already been decided upon and announced by the Leader.
Investment in leisure centres for example.
The new recycling site for Treherbert was announced in August – surely they did not do that without having identified the finance for it? That would be irresponsible and misleading to the public.
In September there was a press release from RCT Council lauding their new facilities at Hawthorn leisure centre and stating that "we have completed the investment at Hawthorn and also agreed to push forward with exciting improvements at Bronwydd Pool to almost double the size of the gym there. Proposals for Abercynon and Rhondda Sports Centre are also being devised."
The report being put to them on Thursday actually states that, in relation to the leisure centres, "details of the schemes were approved by Cabinet on the 27th August 2015."
Nobody is denying this investment is not welcome, but the Leader really should come clean and stop rehashing already announced projects with the aim of simply trying to gain public plaudits.
