Campaigners call for end to 'slow Aberfan disaster'

PEOPLE living in the shadow a quarry near Pontypridd have described their life as a “slow Aberfan disaster”, a Senedd committee has heard.

- CHRIS HAINES and ELLIE GOSLEY

Residents near Craig-yr-Hesg quarry in Glyncoch have been campaigning for more than a year after the Welsh Government signed off proposals for its owners, Heidelberg Materials, to continue operations at the site for another six years.

The quarry was supposed to cease all operations in 2022. More than 11,000 people added their voices to a chorus of calls for a mandatory 1,000m buffer zone around all quarries - but their pleas continued to fall on deaf ears.

One resident and campaigner, Chris Whiles, said in April that the quarry blasts were a huge concern for the community, adding that there was a school just 109m away from the quarry.

“You've got children four or five years old coming home asking their parents, ‘Is my school going to fall down?,” he said.

The petition, which called for an exclusion zone around homes, schools and hospitals, was debated in the Senedd.

Plaid Cymru MS for South Wales Central and Pontypridd resident Heledd Fychan told the Senedd that what was happening to the community of Glyncoch was “scandalous”.

“It is scandalous that their concerns are dismissed,’ she said.

CHRIS HAINES and ELLIE GOSLEY

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Ms Fychan added that, while pennant stone, which is provided through the blasting, is a valuable resource, it contains a high percentage of silica, which “is known to pose several health risks”.