Senior councillors endorse £20 million road repairs

Nicholas Thomas, local demcracy reporter

A £20 million repair project will restore connections to the Upper Rhymney Valley and ensure the safety of residents who “very often feel neglected and forgotten about”, its backers say.

Cabinet members at Caerphilly County Borough Council have endorsed the repair project for the A469 between Pontlottyn and Tirphil, which has been plagued by more than a decade of ground movement issues.

Cllr Eluned Stenner, who represents the New Tredegar ward, told cabinet colleagues the A469 was one of the issues that “keep me awake at night – and it has done for many years”.

The cabinet intends to rejig budgets for other projects to partly finance the repairs, but will need to ask all councillors to vote on a borrowing plan to make up the rest of the funding.

An “accelerated” landslip in 2014 closed the A469 at Troedrhiwfuwch for three months, and the ground suffered further movement in 2020 as a result of Storm Dennis.

Roadworks and traffic restrictions have been in place since, and site investigations were carried out with the aim of either stabilising the existing road or building a new one.

The council estimates repairs will cost £20 million, compared with 2016 estimates of between £75 million and £85 million for a new road.

It is hoped repair work could begin in the late autumn of 2026, but a council report notes this is “very optimistic”.

Cllr Jamie Pritchard, who leads the local authority, made fixing the A469 a priority, and at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday December 10 he said there was a “political imperative” to get the project over the line.

“The residents have been waiting there for a very long time,” he said. “We are determined to push ahead to make sure the people of the Upper Rhymney Valley are well served by this administration.”

Cllr Stenner said the plan “shows this council’s commitment to the north of the borough, [where] residents very often feel neglected and forgotten about”.

Railway line

The council report notes the area around the landslips also includes a water main, a power supply and the Rhymney Valley railway line.

The repairs will reduce dangerous driving conditions, create uninterrupted journeys and reinstate “full access to the communities” in the borough’s north, said Cllr Pritchard.

He warned a failure to act would mean “continued risks” to all road users, as well as rapid deterioration of the carriageway – and a “catastrophic slip poses risks to life and property”.

Director of infrastructure Clive Campbell told the meeting the council would “continue to engage with the Welsh Government on all fronts” and “push” for funding that would “minimise the ask of the local authority”.