Community’s despair as another 25 years of quarrying begins

Martin Shipton

A former nurse who has lived virtually all her life in the shadow of a quarry has provided eloquent testimony to the health fears it provokes in her community.

The expansion of Craig-Yr-Hesg Quarry at Glyncoch, about a mile from Pontypridd has left Jayne Davies and her neighbours in despair at the prospect of 25 more years of stone extraction.

She wrote to Nation.Cymru saying: “Please can you help us all living around this quarry. We have fought years for no expansion as the area has already endured 50 years of silica dust. The stone quarried poses the highest health risk.

“The quarry is currently taking away our land and preparing for expansion. Wildlife such as skylarks lay dead, barn owls too. The area is 10 acres and once was a haven for all to walk and enjoy.

“The generation who have lived here over the quarry years have lung disease and cancer – silica from this stone is highly carcinogenic and although the quarry monitoring may produce emission levels within the law, the law doesn’t measure exposure of this dust over time. No one living here is free from seeing a member of their family suffering lung disease.

“The lorries travel along a narrow B residential road that is a school walkway and route to town. The lorries are 44 tonnes in weight and have to mount our pavements as they are huge to pass buses, other lorries and cars.

“We appealed – however it was overturned by Julie James [then Climate Change Minister]. Rhondda Cynon Taf are also Welsh Labour so they do not allow us to speak. We are getting nowhere but having the quarry granted another 25 years means 75 years of silica exposure, which is second to asbestos in causing cancer and lung disease. This silica kills more than emissions. 35 thousand people living around quarries die a year from it.

“Our homes are ruined with cracks from blasts and it’s too late for the older generation now as most have lung disease. It’s too late for myself as I’ve been exposed daily to it for over 40 years. I have two young adults and a teenager who no doubt will suffer lung disease when older.

“The monitoring system used does not speak truth because even at safe levels it’s the duration of exposure that causes death and illness. Please can we get heard as time is running out.”

Noise

When we called Jayne, she was playing her radio loud in a bid to drown out the noise from the quarrying. She said: “It’s awful. I’m 55 now and the fact that quarrying is going to be permitted for another 25 years is absolutely appalling. There are no measures they can take to make things better. It should be closed down.

“The quarry that has taken our lovely mountain away employs only 17 people so it doesn’t even help give jobs. Also all the stone that is quarried is taken to England, with the majority used for airport runways and motorways.

“Wales does not have any of the stone they take from our mountain. The huge 44 tonne lorries are from Scotland and England, and there are also some with foreign number plates.”

Heidelberg Materials UK, which is mining the quarry, maintains that residents’ concerns were not substantiated by the technical evidence put forward and that inspectors concluded that the proposals “would comply with the development plan and relevant Welsh planning policy.”

The planning inspector had ruled that the decision was in accordance with the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act and that Julie James, Minister for Climate Change at the time the quarry expansion was approved, agreed with this.

Concern

On the issue of health concerns, the company insists that the sector is highly regulated, and that it works hard to minimise any potential impacts from its operations on its neighbours.

All environmental issues raised had been thoroughly examined by the planning inspector, with strict conditions on the control of vibration from blasting, as well as ongoing air quality monitoring in Glyncoch being carried out independently by the local authority were in place.

According to the company, the eventual restoration of the site would lead to an increase of woodland and improved habitat connectivity within the landscape and that it had also put up 20 bat boxes and 20 bird boxes.

While there had never been any public rights of access over the quarry extension area, the company would be creating a permissive path over land to the north of the extension area, allowing pedestrian access from Glyncoch to the Lan Woods to the west.

It said several wildlife surveys had been undertaken and that no bats had been found to be present, adding: “We are keeping the skylarks under observation and are working with our ecologist to ensure that our ongoing works have no impact on that species going forward.”