Senedd Members demand houses are not built on former tar plant

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The former Ness Tar plant, near Caerphilly town centre, is highlighted as a potential area for redevelopment on the council’s Caerphilly 2035 plans.

However, two Plaid Cymru Senedd Members have demanded houses are not built on the site due to contamination fears.

Tar production stopped at the plant in 1985 after nearly 50 years, and since the mid-1990s, the land has been left empty. The site has long been earmarked for development and regularly appears in council development plans.

There are fears that any work on the area could result in contaminated and toxic materials from the old tar plant being brought back up.

Delyth Jewell MS and Peredur Owen Griffiths MS, who both represent the South Wales East region in the Senedd, visited the site, near Caerphilly Railway Station, to highlight the ongoing concerns.

Ms Jewell said: “These sites are used for industrial purposes and or contaminated tipping of industrial waste. What’s now happening is the impact on communities, neighbours and our environment.”

Ms Jewell spoke of “chemicals leaching or contaminated run off from the site” and expressed worry that chemicals could seep into local water courses if the site is disturbed.

Meanwhile, Mr Owen Griffiths said: “Whilst Plaid Cymru would much prefer brownfield sites to be built on rather than the greenfield sites like the one near Cefn Fforest, there are exceptions to this policy when the land is this contaminated.”

He continued: “Protracted or complex remediation leaves communities and natural habitats affected or threatened for decades. The costs for clear up and who pays rage on. All the while, it is nature and communities who bear the brunt.

“Things cannot go on like this.”

Caerphilly resident and environmental campaigner Lynn Gazal was walking in the woods near the former tar plant on August 30 with her children and said: “We were overpowered by noxious fumes and had to leave.”

“The burnt plastic, nauseating type smell was overpowering and my son thought something was on fire.”

Mrs Gazal continued: “Neighbours have smelt this smell the past few days and have been shutting windows. Our houses are perhaps 0.5km away.

“It suggests that the excavated materials, containing tars etc, are being stored on the ground surface without protective covering.”

Council deputy leader Jamie Pritchard, who is also the cabinet member for prosperity, regeneration, and climate change, said: “The site at Ness Tar is a long-standing Brownfield site, that if brought into use for housing, would clearly reduce the demand on green spaces across the Caerphilly Basin.

“However, the site would only be built on if the conditions for doing so are environmentally sound, so there is no guarantee at this time.”

He continued: “If Plaid Cymru want to continue to oppose any house building, anywhere, anytime, then that does nothing but push prices up, making it less affordable for young people in particular, to move into a new home.”