Locals piste off over £300,000,000 ski resort plan for town with no snow

Olympic skiers tumbling down the increasingly barren Alps will soon be able to skate in Wales instead – locals feel it’s taking the piste.

Developers have submitted plans to the Welsh government for a £300,000,000 indoor ski run south of the snowless Brecon Beacons mountain range.

The 575-acre Rhydycar West shame would be among the largest resorts of its kind in the world and just a three hours drive from London and Birmingham.

If approved, it would open at a time when rising temperatures brought on by climate change are reducing the glistening Alps to sludge and mud.

It’s got the backing from Team GB and Wales’ skiing governing body, Snowsport Cymru Wales – but locals are giving the plans the cold shoulder.

They’re worried that the development is just the latest example of the region’s natural beauty being gobbled up by concrete.

Geoff Robinson, 66, who lives in Merthyr Tydill by the mountain, said: ‘When I first lived here it was open countryside all around.

‘Now we’ve got a retail park slap bang next to us and the roads already can’t cope with the volume of traffic that attracts, so how on earth will it cope with the tens of thousands of visitors to the snow resort when or if it opens?

‘The council get pound signs before their eyes and fail to consider the consequences for the poor sods that have to live with these monstrosities springing up around them.

‘If people want a holiday at a snow resort, they can jet off to the Swiss Alps. We don’t need something like this in Merthyr.’

Hilary East, 65, has lived opposite the Beacons for 40 year and says traffic already poses a problem, let alone with a major ski resort nearby.

‘This snow resort idea seems crazy,’ she said. ‘There’s no way Merthyr can cope with any more traffic.

‘At weekends especially, you can be stuck in traffic jams a few hundred metres from your front door for up to an hour.

‘If you throw in a couple of thousand more cars every day, it will be gridlock. I don’t want this development on my doorstep.’

The 400m long indoor slope will include hills and a water park as well as three hotels and 30 woodland lodges.

Government officials, if they call in the application, will likely take up to a year to give it the green light – if done, it would take two-and-a-half-years to build.

Ali Tyebkhan, CEO of Rhydycar West, said: ‘We are proud to confirm the submission of the planning application for Rhydycar West.

‘After years of conceptual and technical planning and extensive public consultations, the team is excited to take the next step towards bringing this world-class resort to life.’

After last year’s scorching summer, glaciologists are worried about the future of snow-peaked mountaintops like the Alps.

This year Switzerland’s glaciers have lost an average of 6.2% of their ice, according to the Swiss Academy of Sciences. That’s a lot of snow.

Ski resort operators are facing an uphill battle to maintain the slopes, some closing or resorting to spraying fake snow across the now dirty, grassy pathways.

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