NEATH: 100 more parking spaces at Gnoll Country Park, and twelve weeks of work starting today

Work starts today on a car park extension at Gnoll Country Park that will add 100 spaces for visitors.

Neath Port Talbot Council says the job will take around twelve weeks, putting completion in early December, and that both the car park and the park itself will stay open while it happens.

It follows the £12m transformation that gave the park a new visitor centre, the Gnoll Towers adventure playground and restored cascades, and the rise in visitor numbers that came with it.

The council says the extra spaces are aimed at busy event days, and at easing pressure on the roads and residential streets nearby where visitors have been parking.

What the drawings show that the announcement does not

The plans go further than the council set out. Alongside the parking, the scheme includes 14 electric vehicle charging points, four of them at 22kW and eight at 7kW, with an accessible bay at each rate.

There are 15 cycle stands, a new gate with a 3.2 metre clear width, a widened section of the existing road, and ground levels adjusted to suit a raised walkway.

Most of the new surface is permeable paving rather than tarmac, with asphalt kept to the access strips.

Building inside a protected landscape

Gnoll Country Park is Grade II registered parkland and statutorily protected. The architect’s drawings carry a standing warning that extreme care must be taken not to damage any part of its fabric or landscape during construction.

A heritage impact assessment maps the views Cadw has formally designated as significant, including those from the Ivy Tower on the hill above the park.

That sensitivity is not academic. In July the park won its first Green Heritage award, one of only 14 sites in the whole of Wales to hold the accreditation, recognising its conservation standards and historic features.

What stays open

The visitor centre remains open, including the Neath Pop Up Museum, which is housed there until the end of September.

The council says there may be some minor disruption, and that the park itself remains free to enter with no entry fee.

Parking charges still apply. The council says the money raised goes back into the park’s upkeep, and points to its All Parks pass, which covers parking at the Gnoll, Margam and Afan Forest.

The scheme is funded through the Local Growth Fund via the UK Government, with Andrew Scott Ltd as contractor. The designs are by Hiraeth Architecture, with engineering drawings by Jubb.

Twelve weeks from today takes the work into the first week of December, ahead of the winter season.