For all year round

A World Class Sport & Leisure Resort

Based in the heart of South Wales Valleys

Say Yes!

Rhydycar West

The Rhydycar West development proposal seeks to create a world class leisure resort in Wales – for all year round.

It will be an outstanding and internationally recognised, sports, leisure and tourism destination able to offer a unique experience to the people of South Wales, the UK as a whole as well as international visitors. The resort is anchored around key elements including the UK’s longest Indoor Snow Centre, a Tropical Waterpark, an Indoor and Outdoor Adventure Centre, plus a range of Hotel offerings and Woodland Lodges.

Indoor snow sports are one of the anchor attractions at Rhydycar West. It will host the Welsh & UK training headquarters, creating a National Centre of Excellence for snow sports as well as offering world class recreational facilities. The resort will be home to a wide variety of indoor and outdoor pursuits including an indoor Waterpark and Indoor & Outdoor Activity Centres. These facilities will be supported by a wide range of associated accommodation from the Luxury Spa and the Sport and Value hotel wings to the Woodland Lodges – to cater for the long and short stay visitor.

The resort will also complement and enhance the existing sport, leisure and tourism offer currently thriving in the South Wales Valleys and Brecon Beacons such as BikePark Wales and Zip World. Ideally situated and extremely well connected the development will strengthen Merthyr Tydﬁl’s regeneration and position as both a destination of choice in its own right and the gateway to the Brecon Beacons.

The proposal is the carefully considered outcome of a period of several years of engagement and understanding of the local and regional economy, ecology, history and heritage. The site will be the home and national training headquarters for the Welsh and UK national, Olympic and Paralympic teams. The national governing body for Snowsports in Wales, Snowsport Cymru Wales have campaigned for this facility for nearly a decade, GB Snowsport are also campaigning for this development. The indoor snow centre will conform to International Ski Federation (FIS) and international standards.

The leisure resort development accords well with the Local Development Plan, Future Wales: The National Plan 2040 and Planning Policy Wales. Legislative requirements of the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, the Socio-economic Duty in force in Wales by virtue of the Equality Act 2010, and the s28G duty under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 are met.

Anchor Elements of the Development

When fully operational, the resort will be a UK premier destination and a basecamp for the region; facilitating longer stays, providing much needed quality accommodation and being the catalyst for new local and regional economic opportunities and job creation.

The development will offer an all year round destination for holiday visitors while underpinning the notion of Wales and the Valleys region developing as the epicentre for UK-wide adventure and activity led tourism.

The topography of the site and the transport connectivity makes this an ideal location at the Heads of the Valleys for a strategic transformational development. The world class facilities of the Snow Centre, being the largest facility in the UK, elevate the development to be one of national signiﬁcance in Welsh and UK terms.

The combined development elements – the Indoor Snow Centre, the Accommodation, the Waterpark and the Indoor and Outdoor Adventure Centre will provide economic growth in the area by attracting visitors that will support existing local businesses and attractions. The recent marketing drive ‘This is Winter – This is Wales’ which is designed to ensure a sustained tourist trade throughout the winter months, is a strategy to which this project can add signiﬁcant value. Skiing and snowboarding are seen as winter pursuits and will attract visitors to the area during the winter season.

An FIS (International Ski Federation) speciﬁcation indoor snow centre, with the longest multiple pistes in the UK, and amongst the largest in the world. Providing a world class facility from complete beginners to elite athletes, and hosting both UK and international competitions.