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Having already upset residents living in the Sirhowy Valley with plans to remediate Bedwas coal tips, ERI Reclamation has provoked further anger by test driving trucks through a country park without permission.

The company carried out the test run through Sirhowy Valley Country Park, which was caught on camera on Friday April 12 and subsequently reported to Natural Resources Wales, which has responsibility for the track.

NRW said it investigated, having marked the incident down as a near miss, and confirmed the track was used without permission.

While NRW said ERI had apologised, the company did not want to comment when asked by Caerphilly Observer how and why the unauthorised test happened.

Janine Reed, Independent councillor for the Ynysddu ward, described ERI’s approach towards safety as “blasé”, and asked the company if drivers were made aware of overhead cables on the track, and if signs were put up warning the public of the trucks.

ERI declined to respond to these questions too.

Fellow ward member Jan Jones told us: “If they are going to be as gung-ho as that when they are doing a test run, what are they going to do when they start work removing the tips?”

The coal tips above Bedwas, which are owned by Caerphilly County Borough Council, have been deemed “high risk” by the Welsh Government.

No public funding is being made available to make the tips safer, so the council approached ERI Reclamation after it did similar remediation work at Six Bells in Abertillery.

ERI wants to level the mounds, as well as digging up soil from deep within them to lay on top so vegetation can grow.

To fund the work, ERI will extract around 500,000 tonnes of coal from the tip, and sell it. The project, which is expected to last between five to ten years, could begin as early as September, if a planning application is submitted and approved.

The main concern from residents and councillors in the area is the proposed haulage route in which the coal will travel from the site.

The “preferred” route, that the 18 to 20 lorries a day would travel down, would run behind Bedwas coal tips, down the existing forest track through the Sirhowy Valley Country Park (where the trucks were spotted), past a Covid memorial park, and join the A467 roundabout, near the Full Moon industrial estate.

There are also wider concerns that the project is opencast mining in all but name – something the company has denied.

When asked for the latest update on where the project was at, Piers Thomas from ERI said: “ERI is working closely with NRW and preparing to submit planning in due course. All information will be publicly available once planning is submitted.”