Gelligaled Park Community Action Group
In 2018, residents of Ystrad Rhondda formed the Gelligaled Park Community Action Group. The Action Group was initially formed as a response to the conversion of the children’s multi-use games area into a car park. In October 2019, the Action Group became a registered charity. The group’s aim is to address ‘a perceived lack of accessible, free outdoor sports/play/leisure spaces and facilities for residents in Ystrad Rhondda and surrounding areas’.
The Action Group continues to work on projects designed to improve community well-being, this includes bringing flowers back into Gelligaled Park and ‘Christmas in Ystrad’ with the Christmas Tree and Carol Concert projects.
Latest News
December Update
Published 16/12/25
Breakfast With Santa
A fantastic breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning, lots of wonderful feedback from parents. A massive contribution from Emma Watts, who went above and beyond in sourcing the food for the breakfast, with donations from Castell Howell, A J Andrew’s fruit and veg and Central Bar and catering supplies.
Also, a massive thanks to all the Trustees who worked their socks off behind the scenes to make the event a success.
A big thank you to Tracey Star and Heaven Griffiths for helping out too. Finally, thanks to all who attended. Permission was given by parents for the selected photos among the lots that were taken that day.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
After an eventful series of setbacks, the group succeeded in setting up the fully lit Christmas tree as promised in our earlier post.
The initial difficulty was with the tree height. However, on replacing the tree the lighting contractor was not satisfied that lights could be safely attached. With the help of RCT personnel we were able to resolve the issue, and the fully lit tree was finally installed on 10 December – a week later than we had originally planned.
MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR
NADOLIG LLAWEN A BLWYDDYN NEWYDD DDA
Published 07/12/25
Christmas Carol Concert
Well, we knocked it out of the park again. Some saying our best of the three annual concerts so far.
A massive thank you to our wonderful community for coming out again to support our concert in such awful weather – we think you will all agree such a great start to Christmas at St Stephen’s Church being full to the rafters again.
Huge thanks go out to :-
All at St Stephen’s Church
Father Peter Gale
Bodringallt Primary School
YGG Bodringallt
Melody of Harps
Christmas Tree
Our tree in 2024 was the best to date. A short note to update all on the progress with this year’s tree.
The tree was installed by our suppliers on schedule. However, on Monday 1 December, the contractor installing the lighting was concerned that the tree was too short to make a safe connection for the electricity supply from the nearby light. The tree supplier was immediately contacted and has agreed to replace the tree. However, the weather has been so bad that he has been unable to replace immediately but will do so when conditions permit.
Watch out for the replacement and lighting in coming days.
November Update
Published 05/11/25
Gelligaled Park Community action Group has a full programme of events planned for December.
28/29 November – 5 December 2025
The first of these will be the installation of the annual lit Christmas tree in the Peace Park, Ystrad. The tree and lights are funded by the group and licensed by the local authority.
5 December 2025
The installation of the tree will be quickly followed by the third of the annual Christmas Carol Concerts organised by the group and will be held at 7.00pm, 5 December in St Stephen’s Church. A full programme of carols, songs and music has been arranged with local primary schools, local musicians and singers all taking part to provide another memorable night of festive celebrations.
Programmes are available at the door on the night and the price of £5.00 includes a free raffle for a sumptuous hamper of Christmas goodies.
13 December 2025
“Breakfast with Santa” is a new festive treat hosted by the group.
To be held from 10.00 am to 12.00 noon on December 13 at Ystrad RFC Clubhouse. The event will provide a light breakfast and an opportunity for children to meet Father Christmas and tell him directly of their Christmas wishes. All children will be presented with a chocolate selection box as a gift. Tickets priced at £8.95 per child are available from Ystrad RFC clubhouse or may be paid at the door at the event.
2026
Discussions are already advanced for a programme of events through the first half of 2026.
Included in this planning are:
- A fund-raising concert
- A programme of Welsh culture and food to celebrate St David’s Day
- A “Festival of Sport” including rugby, cricket, basketball and other sports
KEEP VISITING OUR FACEBOOK PAGE – GELLIGALED PARK COMMUNITY ACTION GROUP; OUR WEBSITE – WWW.GELLIGALEDPARKCAG.CYMRU; AND OUR NOTICEBOARD AT THE PARK ENTRANCE FOR FUTURE UPDATES ON ALL EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES BY THE GROUP.
There’s more news on our ‘News’ page……
Our Projects
Winter Programme 2024-25
Gelligaled Park Community Action Group has continued their activities over the summer months and secured the installation of a further two planters in the park and with another two planned.
The two new planters have been sited to the left of the main walk through the park below the children’s playground and bring the total number installed by the group to four. In preparation for the winter months, the plants were cleared from the two pre-existing planters, and the soil refreshed in all four. New bulbs and bedding plants were planted in all planters ready to provide pools of colour in the spring 2025.
The planting by trustees was assisted by staff and pupils from Ysgol Hen Felin.
Many thanks are given to Hywel Bebb and his team from RCT Parks who assisted by positioning the planters in the park, to Asda Tonypandy for their generous donation of compost, and to B&Q Pontypridd for their support with bulbs and bedding plants.
We are now ready for winter with our planting programme.
Our Winter Programme continues with the installation of the Christmas tree and lights at the beginning of December in time for our Christmas Concert in St Stephen’s Church, Ystrad.
The tree and concert build on the success of the same exercise in 2023, and for this year’s concert on 6 December we have been successful in recruiting local talent. The confirmed programme will be posted here in early November when the programmes for the concert are available and come on sale. Watch this space for more advice.
Our ambitions for the park continue and we are actively working on short term and long-term projects to improve the facilities available to Ystrad and neighbouring communities.
Multi-Use Games Area
The multi-use games area was officially opened in July 2022 after a long complicated process including public consultations, writing business plans, fund raising activities, writing grant applications, applying for and obtaining planning permission, leasing the land in Gelligaled Park, environmental surveys, engaging with construction companies, and finally signing off the completed multi-use games area.
The multi-use games area project was funded by Welsh Government, Welsh Church Act Fund, Rhondda Cynon Taff CBC Enabling Fund, National Lottery, Coalfields Regeneration Trust, local businesses (such as Seasons Joinery) and local residents, the total funding raised by our charity to build the games area was £95,000.
Contact Gelligaled Park Community Action Group
If you’d like to contact us for any reason, then please don’t hesitate to use our Contact Form below.
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