5,700 letters of objection handed to council over Nant Llesg open cast mine plan

More than 5,700 letters of objection have been handed to Caerphilly County Borough Council over plans to build an open cast mine near Rhymney.

Company Miller Argent has submitted a planning application for the mine and has said up to 239 jobs could be created at Nant Llesg.

The proposed site is located on 478 hectares of land to the west of Rhymney, north of Fochriw and south of the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road.

Opponents to the scheme have said residents living in Rhymney could face years of dust, noise and light pollution and the loss of habitat for migrating birds.

Last month opposition groups the United Valleys Action Group (UVAG) and Green Valleys Alliance (GVA) delivered 3,493 objection letters to the council’s planning offices in Pontllanfraith.

They had already handed over 2,237 objections at the council’s last full meeting in November.

The thousands of objection letters were collected by the two groups following packed public meetings in Rhymney, Fochriw, Pontlottyn and Deri.

A spokesman for the opposition groups said: “There is massive local opposition to the Nant Llesg open cast mine that would destroy 1,000 acres of beautiful common land for a generation including the Rhaslas nature reserve, cause noise and dust pollution in the nearby communities and threaten scarce local existing jobs.”

Miller Argent have said that £12.9 million will be invested annually in the local area amounting to £180.6 million over the lifetime of the project. Howeverm cosmetics firm Richards & Appleby said it would move manufacturing if the mine came its into use. The company neighbours the site and employs 140 people. It supplies products to Harrods and John Lewis.

Managing Director Mitchell Field said that if the mine went ahead, then 90 manufacturing jobs would have to be relocated out of the area. Mr Field leads the GVA, which is a consortium of businesses affected by the proposal.

Opposition groups claim they have not been given an equal opportunity to air their views after Miller Argent presented their plans to the council in an hour-long meeting earlier this year. The two campaign groups described this meeting as a “sales pitch”.

The two groups have said they will organise their own public meetings for councillors to attend.

Subject to planning permission being granted, work on the scheme would likely to begin in 2014, with the site remediated by 2027.