Off roaders damaging coal tips is a “significant concern”

Anthony Lewis Local Democracy Reporter

Off roaders damaging coal tips is a “significant concern”, a councillor has said.

A Rhondda Cynon Taf council report said there are ongoing problems faced by the tips team and a new proactive approach is being considered where the most at-risk tips from off-roading activity (and which are also high-risk category tips) will be overtly monitored using trail cams to identify hot spots of activity.

The report which went to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee on Monday, November 11 said there is a specific problem on the hillside in Tylorstown with damage caused by people riding scrambler bikes in the area.

It also said that the council considers it important to highlight and educate off-roaders to the damage they cause – not only to the tip infrastructure but to the ecology and public amenity that many of these sites provide.

Education

The council is considering education through schools engagement and producing signs which highlight these issues and can then be used alongside the overt camera surveillance.

A camera surveillance strategy policy has been drafted and will need to be verified by senior management before any physical cameras can be installed to ensure the council is not infringing GDPR protocols, the report said.

Councillor Gareth Hughes said it is a “significant concern” and a significant issue across the mid Rhondda area.

He said it is seen as a joke or something trivial which he always finds frustrating.

He said: “This is having a very real impact on coal tip safety. It’s having very real impact I suppose on our prioritisation of work as well.”

Cllr Hughes asked if they could work with off roaders to understand why they are using these areas and maybe look to find areas they can use.

He said he appreciates there would be a cost and resource but he said there was a cost and resource to not doing it.

“Frustrating”

Jacqueline Mynott, the council’s head of infrastructure asset management, described the issue as frustrating and said they had put a kissing gate in at Tylorstown, but that this had been damaged and destroyed so off roaders could get access.

She said they hope to have cameras within the next couple of months. In terms of working with off road bikers she said that they had engaged with the Green Lane Association, and that it was something they’ll have to look at further.

Ms Mynott added it was possibly more about education and in terms of proposing where those wishing to go off road can go, and that local residents may cite the noise aspects of it.

She also said they’re hoping to put signs up to advise people where they want them to avoid.

Cllr Hughes said the council doesn’t want to shift them from one place to another place and create a different issue but said that it feels like at the moment people are being told don’t off road it’s causing issues with our tips, without offering any serious alternative for them.

He said he wondered how the local authority could look to create areas where off road use could be established legally or could be done without causing impact to tips.

Councillor Mike Powell said: “We do need to get engaged with these off roaders.”

He said he had previously suggested the council use Nant y Gwyddon landfill site for an off road biking centre.

Cllr Powell said: “Unless you’re proactive instead of reactive then you’re going to continue having the same problem which we’ve had for over the last 18 years so we do need to be serious about it.”

He said: “We could become a beacon for off roaders but in a legal and properly controlled manner.”

He added: “It’s nothing new. We haven’t done anything about it for 20-odd years. Unless we’re adamant that we’re going to do something then that’s going to continue.”

Cllr Powell said money raised from this could go to pay for other services.

Steve Williams, director of highways, streetcare and transportation services at the council, said they are looking at engaging with groups and monitoring but added: “I don’t think it’s going to be a simple way to eradicate it because this is 40/50 years in the making.”

He described the issue as a serious problem and one that isn’t going to be eradicated quickly.

As part of phase four works to the Tylorstown tip, the council is working on a longer-term land management plan for the hillside.

A working group of council officers has been created to consider and implement the long-term management of the hillside, including tip safety, ecology, land management and access.