“We can’t keep burying our heads in the sand”: Council backs contaminated land inquiry

Calls for a national inquiry into potentially contaminated land have won the unanimous support of Caerphilly County Borough councillors, after warnings the authorities could not afford to “keep burying our heads in the sand”.

Villagers in Ynysddu have long raised concerns about leachate runoff from the former Ty Llwyd quarry, where toxic chemicals were dumped in the 1960s and 1970s.

Actor Michael Sheen’s recent documentary, Buried, has intensified scrutiny around the historical dumping of potentially hazardous waste around Wales.

At a full council meeting on Tuesday September 29, Caerphilly councillors accepted the scope of the issue stretched far beyond the county borough’s borders, and will now ask the Welsh Government to set up an independent inquiry.

At the heart of the motion were Ynysddu ward councillors Jan Jones and Janine Reed, who have long pushed the authorities to investigate Ty Llwyd.

There were frustrations in the summer when the council concluded the site did not meet a legal definition of contaminated land, following “extensive” sampling by analysts.

Cllr Reed told the meeting residents had “longstanding concerns” about the quarry, and an inquiry – if one is set up – should examine whether additional investigations or remediation are required.

“This is something that has been hanging over us for years,” she said. “We need contamination to be properly understood and… concerns taken seriously.”

Cllr Kevin Etheridge, who grew up in the area and co-presented the motion with the two Ynysddu councillors, said the calls for an inquiry were “not party political”.

“It’s very serious – the safety of residents and communities in Wales and the UK matters,” he added.

The council’s leader, Cllr Jamie Pritchard, said the Labour group supported the call for a national inquiry into the issue of contaminated land, adding he believed “it’s right to say polluters should pay”.

The Plaid Cymru group’s opposition leader, Cllr Charlotte Bishop, said “we can’t keep burying our heads in the sand”, while independent group leader Cllr Nigel Dix suggested previous inaction was due to “everyone running away from this because of the costs”.

“At the moment it’s been swept under the carpet,” said Cllr Colin Mann. “There just seems to be a determination to let it go and hope nothing happens.”

Caerphilly Council has taken on responsibility for managing the former Ty Llwyd site, but Cllr Steve Skivens told the meeting that nobody present was “responsible for this industrial legacy”.

But he said members “as community leaders… have a primary duty of care” to the borough’s residents, and should “ensure to the best of our ability the safety of our communities”.