Nearly £14 million will be spent on making coal tips in a Welsh county safer

Anthony Lewis, Local democracy reporter

Nearly £14m of Welsh Government funding will be allocated towards making coal tips in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) safer over the next year.

The council has announced that it has secured £13.7m funding from the Welsh Government for its continuing work to inspect, maintain, and deliver targeted works at coal tip sites across Rhondda Cynon Taf.

The funding covers the 2026-27 financial year and will be coordinated by the council’s coal tips safety team.

The Welsh Government money is part of its wider coal tip safety grant funding across Wales and for the 2025-26 financial year Rhondda Cynon Taf received £11.4m.

There were 295 local tip inspections completed in RCT in the nine months up to September 2025 and this does not include inspections and safety checks are carried out around sustained periods of heavy rainfall.

The council’s coal tip safety team has received and reviewed 120 inspection reports that were commissioned by Welsh Government from the Mining Remediation Authority.

The council says the coal tips safety grant funding is also enabling it to deliver an important works programme for local tips.

Minor maintenance can include vegetation clearance, clearing out and repairing drainage channels, repairing pipes and culverts, reinstating drains, and scour repairs.

Recent examples include maintenance work at Tunnel Tip in Cwmbach from August 2025, clearance and drainage works at Clydach Vale Countryside Park (September 2025), investigations at Gilfach Goch Tip (October 2025), maintenance work at Craig y Duffryn Tip in Mountain Ash (November 2025), drainage and vegetation work at Lady Windsor Colliery in Ynysybwl (January 2026), watercourse channel works at Cwm Colliery Tip in Llantwit Fardre (January 2026), maintenance work at Cefnpennar Tip (January 2026), and maintenance work at Lewis Merthyr Colliery in Trehafod (February 2026).

There are also larger ongoing repairs at sites like the Tylorstown landslip remediation programme, the Wattstown national tip, track formalisation at Cefnpennar tip, and repairs to the riverbank at a location near Pentwyn Sports Ground in Penrhiwceiber.

The council has also recently received £4.8m funding from the Welsh Government for a major future scheme at the Graig Ddu tip in Dinas.