St Tudor’s Church in Mynyddislwyn
An ancient Valleys church has been hit by ten heavy goods vehicles in the last ten years, with some members of the congregation having lucky escapes.
St Tudor’s Church in Mynyddislwyn, parts of which date back over a thousand years, has seen three lorries batter its stone walls in the last 12 months.
The total repair bill has been estimated at around £20,000.
The most recent collision could have ended in death had the HGV from Poland reached the church just minutes earlier.
Church warden Allen Sharpe had arrived at the church and parked his car by the entrance.
The HGV approaching from the south could not pass the church and became stuck. The driver attempted to reverse backwards and struck Mr Sharpe’s car, eventually crushing it under the rear wheels.
“I had come to open the church. Had I got there three minutes later, I would have been crushed inside my car,” Mr Sharpe said.
The road,which is used by local farms and a gun club,was closed for five hours while three police cars and two fire engines attended the incident. An ambulance also attended and took the HGV driver who suffered a fracture, cuts and bruising to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport.
Residents are pinning the blame on inexperienced drivers blindly following sat-nav instructions.
Lorries heading to Nine Mile Point Industrial Estate in Cwmfelinfach are confused by signs at the entrance of the only route,the B4251,to the estate.
The signs prohibit vehicles over 7.5 tonnes from using the road except for access.
Drivers attempt alternative routes and find themselves on a single-lane mountain road heading towards the church. They then find that they cannot pass St Tudors without colliding with the stone walls.
The church congregation want clear signage at both the north and south approaches to the church warning of a road layout unsuitable for HGVs. The road cannot be closed to all lorries over a certain size because access is needed by local farms and businesses.
St Tudor’s Church,more often known as Mynyddislwyn Church, has to hold expensive insurance to pay a master stonemason to rebuild the wall following each collision.
If the lorry owner is not based in Britain, it is very difficult to get the insurance company to pay.
The congregation and residents of the mountain have petitioned Caerphilly County Borough Council many times over the years, but say their requests for clearer road signs have gone unheard.
“I fear the council won’t do anything until someone is actually crushed by one of these lorries,” Mr Sharpe said.
A Caerphilly County Borough Council spokesman said: “It would seem that issues with HGVs using unsuitable routes are becoming ever more prevalent due to the increased use of sat-nav units, not just in our county borough but country-wide and,as such,is proving to be a very difficult issue to resolve.”
He said signs had been changed in response to the complaints about this situation.
“We fully sympathise with these difficulties caused to the local community,and officers have listened to concerns from residents and acted accordingly to the best of their ability,” he added.