The road to nowhere! Unfinished highway with its own bus stop leads to ghost town centre supposed to have a supermarket, cinema and hotel that has never been built
- The shambolic scheme in Talbot Green, near Cardiff, was revealed back in 2011
- But years of delays have seen it stuck in limbo with a road leading to a wasteland
A ghost ‘town centre’ with its own ‘road to nowhere’ – leading to shops that were never built – has been branded a ‘waste of money’.
Constructed five miles from Cardiff, Wales, the route was meant to serve a bustling new leisure hub in Talbot Green, complete with a cinema, supermarket and hotel.
But after more than a decade in limbo, the delayed project has failed to get off the ground, with the ‘town centre’ still a muddy wasteland.
Now outraged locals have lashed out after new photos revealed the shambolic scheme from the air.
Shopper Val Lewis, 58, said: ‘What a waste of money to build a road that goes nowhere – there’s even a bus stop on it. It just adds insult to injury every time you drive past.’
‘A road to nowhere’: The highway was meant to lead to a bustling new ‘town centre’. But after more than a decade of delays, it leads instead to an empty patch of wasteland
Plans for the new leisure hub were meant to include a cinema, supermarket and hotel. But the site remains unused, with locals branding the scheme a ‘waste of money’
Diggers have now appeared at the site to carry out work – more than a decade after the project was revealed – but no date has been revealed for when the long-awaited scheme will be completed
It was back in 2011 that proposals were revealed by Talbot Green Developments Ltd for the new supermarket, hotel and cinema to serve the booming commuter built outside the Welsh capital.
Plans were approved and the new road with roundabout built to handle the expected traffic to the site which promised so much.
But nothing happened – until in the last few weeks with diggers seen on the site.
Locals hope work is starting for a 50,000 square feet Sainsbury’s store described as the ‘anchor tenant’ on the site.
The new Sainsbury’s store is expected to create at least 150 jobs.
The company hopes the store could be open within a year. There will also be an Argos store inside the supermarket, which will have more than 500 parking spaces.
Property director for Sainsbury’s Patrick Dunne said the company is ‘pleased to be taking the final steps in our longstanding plans to deliver a new supermarket for Talbot Green’.
The group overseeing the development, England-based Scarborough Group – which is a joint venture with TGDL, remains unable to provide clarity on the future steps for the development.
The vision: This is what the area was meant to look like, with a built up multi-screen cinema, shop and hotel
Proposals for the new leisure site were revealed back in 2011 by Talbot Green Developments Ltd for the new supermarket, hotel and cinema to serve the booming commuter built outside the Welsh capital
But nothing happened – until in the last few weeks when diggers appeared on the site. Locals hope work is starting for a 50,000 square feet Sainsbury’s store described as the ‘anchor tenant’ on the site
The new Sainsbury’s store is expected to create at least 150 jobs. The company hopes the shop could be open within a year. Pictured is an aerial view of the site
A spokeswoman for Scarborough Group said the company is ‘reviewing our options’ over the development and could not commit to plans already laid out for the site.
‘We are currently reviewing our options for the wider Talbot Green town centre site to ensure that the proposed master plan comprises the right mix of uses that respond to the needs and wants of the local community,’ they said.
A spokesman for Rhondda Cynon Taf council said: ‘The council’s planning committee initially granted permission for a new supermarket on land at Talbot Green.
‘Works to implement this latest permission must start by August 2023 to comply with the planning consent. The council has recently been advised by Sainsbury’s that it intends to start works in compliance with that requirement.’
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