Vandals blamed for cost of ‘absolutely hideous’ steel fence in national park

Twm Owen, local democracy reporter

A council that spent around £66,000 on an “absolutely hideous” steel fence has blamed vandals for most of the cost.

Dubbed the ‘Great Wall of Clydach’ the galvanised steel fence was put across some 200 metres of Gilwern mountain in the Bannau Brychieniog National Park in April.

Monmouthshire County Council said the 2.1m high, or six foot tall, fence was required to block access to Pwll Du road running across the mountain due to fears it could collapse into the quarry below and installed after previous measures including bollards and gates were unlawfully removed.

The sudden appearance of the fence, without consultation, sparked a public backlash and in May the council agreed it would reduce the heigh of the fence and paint it a darker colour, at a cost of around £20,000.

Councillor Richard John, the Conservative’s opposition group leader, asked at the authority’s most recent meeting how much it will have spent on fencing above Clydach by the end of this year.

‘Visually acceptable’

Cllr Catrin Maby, the council’s Labour cabinet member responsible for the environment, said the total cost will be around £66,000 including £42,000 to install and a further £22,000 to make it “more visually acceptable”.

She told him people had been seen on the road unaware it could collapse at any moment which had prompted the council to act and said “part of the cost is the cost of vandalism unfortunately.”

The Drybridge councillor said: “Please remember saving lives is our priority when assessing the cost of this road.”

Cllr John, who represents Mitchell Troy and Trellech, said he recognised “lives are important but clearly there was wastage here” and asked what steps would be taken to “so we do not see this huge scale of money wasted again” adding: “£66,000 has been spent on that fence this year”.

Vandalism

He said there is a “real sense of a significant amount of money wasted here” and said he’d seen the fence for himself with two other councilors: “It’s absolutely hideous, it is seven foot high and has huge metal spikes.”

He asked the cabinet member to “quantify how much has been spent unnecessarily?”.

Cllr Maby replied: “Had no vandalism occurred the cost would have been £2,000. I put the question back to you, how much do you think saving a life is worth? If you think that’s an over expenditure?”