Car Park next for Ynysangharad Park?
The go ahead was given this week by the four Labour members of the Ynysangharad Park Cabinet sub-committee for a £2 million bridge to be built between the park and the new Taff Vale development.
The proposal has already met with a deal of criticism locally with residents questioning the spending of such a sum of money on a bridge which is a stone's throw from an existing one.
The park is in the ward of Welsh Liberal Democrat Councillor Mike Powell and he suspects there is an ulterior motive for it.
"I can see no reason for this bridge to be built here if the idea is, as stated in the Cabinet report, just to encourage people to use the park. Surely the people working on the new Taff Vale site will be as capable as anyone else of walking the extra few hundred yards to walk around to the main gates. From an economic point of view wouldn't it make more sense to encourage them to have to walk past shops where they may spend some money in the town?
"If there is a need for another bridge then why not place it further along so that it connects the centre of town to the park, mid way between the two existing bridges?
"The answer that springs to mind is that it is a precursor to putting a car park in the park on the former site of the old day centre. The area is already being used for the parking of RCT Council staff cars, so use is being established. The next step will be to announce that there is insufficient car parking space in town with the building of the new offices and that more are required.
"This explains too why the proposed bridge is being built at such a height and leaving plenty of room beneath it for access to that area. I hope I am wrong, but the evidence so far certainly points that way."