Plans for the defunct National Diving & Activity Centre (NDAC) inland diving facility to get a new lease of life at a location near Neath in south Wales have taken a step forward.
A former open-cast coal-mine site in the Amman Valley called East Pit is the chosen spot to revive the facility, according to a report in Wales Online. The water-filled former workings now form a lake between the villages of Tairgwaith and Cwmllynfell, which lie on the south side of the Black Mountain, part of Brecon Beacons National Park.
Plans to redevelop this area into a “country park” leisure facility complete with hotel, lodge and campsite accommodation with a lakeside dive and water activity centre had first been drawn up as long ago as 2012, when NDAC was still operating at Dayhouse Quarry near Tidenham, Gloucestershire.
That facility closed in early 2022, as reported by Scuba Diver. Opened in 2003, it had been able to offer diving to as deep as 80m, making it suitable for technical and freedivers, beside offering a range of attractions at shallower levels.
It has since been taken over by DEEP as an underwater habitat and submersible research facility.
The East Pit site-owner, Avalon Glen, has faced environmental concerns and some local opposition to its plans, but the Welsh government has now granted it permission to deregister more than 100 hectares of common land around the site to move ahead with the project. When common land is released for development, new common land has to be provided to replace it.
In March last year NDAC Ltd applied to Neath Port Talbot Council for a three-year extension to submit a Reserved Matters Approval, the stage in planning applications that covers detailed plans for aspects such as site appearance, means of access, landscaping, layout and scale.
However, it also said that the plans remained largely unchanged from before its involvement in 2012.
