Urgent support needed for farmers still recovering from devastating summer wildfires

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter 

Farmers who saw their stock decimated by this summer’s wildfires are surviving “day-to-day” a council has heard.

During August the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service was forced to respond to 14 wildfires at the same time including a fire at Mynydd Garnclochdy, between Blaenavon and Abersychan, that burned for weeks from July.

Three months on farmers who depend on grazing sheep on the common land on the Blorenge, which is a site of special scientific interest and also forms part of the UNESCO recognised Blaenavon World Heritage Site, are still seeing, and coping, with the aftereffects said Councillor Nick Horler.

“Right now farmers are living day-to-day to survive and I firmly believe the Welsh Government should look at the bigger picture and help these farmers as soon as it can,” the Blaenavon member told a Torfaen Borough Council meeting which backed his bid to ask the Welsh Government for support.

“We have a generation of farmers who will not be there if they do not get any income. They are trying to protect the SSSI and their own livelihoods with no support other than the money given by Torfaen Borough Council. I’m sure the government should have some compassion for these people and help them.”

The independent councillor said fewer sheep “than went on the mountain” are coming down for the “thumping season” with many damaged by ammonia due to the fire and said: “There is massive uncertainty how many sheep will produce lambs for next year.”

Aftermath of fire

In the immediate aftermath of the fire Torfaen Borough Council provided £50,000 and worked with the Blorenge Commoners Association to repair waterways on the common and restore drainage pathways to protect the SSSI, which is the highest status for a protected nature site.

The motion put forward by Cllr Horler asked council leader Anthony Hunt to write to Llyr Gruffydd, the Welsh Government minister for rural matters, to seek “a dedicated, long-term funding package specifically tailored for the Blorenge commoners to protect their incomes and support sustainable upland management”.

It also asked for a working group to be established between the Welsh Government, Torfaen Borough Council, and the Blorenge Commoners’ Association to ensure the common remains a “viable farming landscape for decades to come”.

Councillors also backed a call for a bracken control programme which Cllr Horler said presents a renewed threat to the landscape following the fires.

Labour leader Anthony Hunt said he is “happy to take the steps in the motion” which he said builds on the action already taken.

He said: “I can make sure it’s not my voice particularly but the voices of those farmers and what I can do is to amplify their voice and make sure they get a hearing.”

Wildfires summit 

Cllr Hunt said he’d already introduced the minister to some of those affected locally following the Welsh Government’s wildfires summit in October while he also said the financial support the council provided to the commoners is an example of its Torfaen Deal approach.

That aims to work with community groups which Cllr Hunt said is “more effective than us imposing our solutions on them”.

Cllr Hunt also said comparisons to the hot summer of 1976 could be “unhelpful” as he described that as “concentrated in a small part of the world” but said “2026 was the hottest summer on record throughout the world.”

He acknowledged many of the fires may have been “negligently or deliberately ignited” and ground conditions were “ripe for wildfires” and said: “We need to talk about all of that but in the context of real danger from a rapidly warming global climate.

“Anything done to minimise recognition of that is not just neglecting the science but our responsibilities.”