Will school expansion go ahead if sewage problem at Sue Noake playing field gets fixed?

There is uncertainty surrounding plans to extend Trinity Fields special educational school in Ystrad Mynach because of leaking sewage on the site of a proposed replacement sports field.

Councillors approved the contentious plans in April last year – despite widespread unhappiness that a rugby pitch used by Penallta RFC would be built on and lost.

To replace the lost pitch, a new one would be created on the fields at Sue Noake Leisure Centre – the only hurdle being a long-standing problem with leaking sewage.

Prior to the plans being approved, Caerphilly County Borough Council had played down the problem with public statements “setting the record straight” – much to the chagrin of residents.

However, last summer the council changed its tune and put the school expansion and subsequent replacement pitch on hold “for the foreseeable future”.

So will the school expansion go ahead?

Welsh Water, which has responsibility for the manhole where the sewage is leaking, has been investigating the problem at Sue Noake since last summer.

At the time, council leader Philippa Marsden said the plans were paused to “provide Welsh Water with the appropriate time and space to investigate the problems and undertake any further works that are required”.

Caerphilly Observer asked Caerphilly County Borough Council if it had plans to press ahead with the school expansion after the Welsh Water investigation.

In its response, the council did not address this question and instead said: “The health and wellbeing of residents is paramount and the land at Sue Noake will only be developed for recreational use if it is safe to do so

Ystrad Mynach resident Phil Morris told Caerphilly Observer the sewage was “as bad as it’s ever been” in recent months.

Mr Morris said the issue eases in the summer, but comes back with heavy rain.

“The potential for the issue to come back will always be there. As far as I’m concerned, as long as there is the potential, the council can’t put a sports field there,” he said.

Fenced off

Welsh Water has now fenced off the affected area, stopping people from being able to go near it.

A Welsh Water spokesperson said it attended the site after sewage overflowed during Storm Eunice, with clean-up carried out.

“While we have already carried out a number of investigations into what is causing the sewer there to overflow during periods of heavy rain, we still have some further investigations to undertake and these are set to take place at the beginning of March,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) said it is “continuing to monitor the situation closely”.

Kirsty Lewis, Senior Environment Officer for NRW said: “Welsh Water has commissioned surveys of the downstream network to try and identify the root of the problem and the results are expected in March.

“Considerable work to identify the issue has been undertaken, which includes the removal of 11 black bags of sewage-derived litter from one chamber alone, and a large piece of ply board that was blocking the flow at the outlet.”

Ms Lewis added: “Once the surveys are complete, we’ll determine what further action needs to be taken and share more information when it’s appropriate for us to do so.”

“Productive discussion”

Caerphilly’s Labour Senedd Member, Hefin David, arranged a meeting on February 22 with Welsh Water, NRW and Caerphilly County Borough Council.

The meeting was also attended by local residents and Ystrad Mynach ward councillors.

Dr David said there was a “productive discussion” at the meeting and added: “We raised concerns that the area of contamination at the site was wider than the current lightly fenced area. Welsh Water agreed to cordon a wider area with more robust fencing.

“The ultimate aim is for Welsh Water to address the pollution within the cordoned area but they told us that they first need to find the source of the problem.

“We agreed to meet again in mid-March for a further update meeting. I will report further progress as I get it.”