Support quality, independent, local journalism…that matters

From just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member today

Quarrying operations at a Gelligaer farm can continue for an extended period despite locals’ complaints about the site’s “relentless” impact on their lives.

Caerphilly County Borough Council’s planning committee agreed on Wednesday January 14 to grant the Bryn Group until the end of 2026 for quarrying at Gelliargwellt Uchaf Farm.

The firm will also be able to carry out restoration work until the end of 2034.

Amid reluctance from some committee members, a senior officer warned failing to grant planning permission would likely lead to an appeal – and the council would be unable to monitor quarry restrictions and conditions while that process played out.

A planning agent for the applicant said the Bryn Group “takes all of their responsibilities very seriously”.

But opponents warned residents would “continue to suffer” if work at the quarry continued.

Local resident James Vukashin, speaking on behalf of other community members, said residents had “lived for too long with the escalating impacts” of the quarry.

He claimed the effects of operations were “not normal and not acceptable”, leaving some villagers “reduced to tears” because “the impacts on their lives are relentless”.

A separate extension approved in 2025 “pushed the quarry 131 metres closer to homes and locked in extraction until 2044”, he added.

“Residents talk about children coughing, windows that can’t be opened and homes shaking from blasts,” Mr Vukashin told the committee. “It’s a health issue, a wellbeing issue, and a human issue.”

St Cattwg ward councillor Ann Gair described an “endless nightmare” for residents involving “constant machine noise”, dust and “thundering” lorries.

She claimed the community had “lost confidence” in complaints procedures.

“For years, the community has endured the noise, dust and heavy traffic from the quarry,” ward colleague Cllr Haydn Pritchard added. “It’s time to put our health, safety and environment first. It’s time to give the residents a break.”

Merthyr Tydfil county councillor Michelle Symonds urged the committee to also consider the impacts on the residents of Trelewis, just outside the Caerphilly County Borough boundary.

She alleged the quarry “did not become a major industrial complex overnight” but had grown through a series of “incremental” planning applications, that “taken together… amount to a progressive intensification of industrial use”.

The site also includes a dairy farm, waste recovery processor and an anaerobic digestion unit, case officer Anthony Pyne told the committee – adding that the “principle of development” at the quarry “is considered acceptable”.

Joe Ayoubkhani, representing the applicant, said the Bryn Group is “committed to good controls on the site and positive working relationships with residents, the community council and other stakeholders”.

The firm offers up monitoring data to residents, and “recognises [and] understands” local concerns.

But he insisted the current application was for “a short, controlled continuation” of quarrying, providing the firm “enough time to finish what’s already been approved with no change to the working area”.

He argued the quarry was important for “national infrastructure” as “one of the few sites providing high-specification aggregates used for things like road surfacing [to] add skid resistance”.

Environmental health officer Ceri Davis added the latest monitoring data for dust at the quarry found levels were below national limits, and her department was “not currently concerned” about particulate matter.

Senior planning officer Carwyn Powell urged members to consider the officers’ recommendations to approve the scheme.

“I appreciate the concerns raised by residents, and they have been very strong in those concerns, and I understand the feeling they have in the community,” he said. “As a planning authority… we have to advise members on the basis of guidance and legislation.”

If the committee was minded to refuse the scheme, and the applicant later appealed the decision, “we can’t take enforcement action while that appeal is being considered”, he added.