Ty LLWYD Quarry

Caerphilly County Borough Council have briefed me on the latest situation regarding Ty Llywydd Quarry that has generated a lot of publicity and public comment.

The Council, as the responsible body, is currently undertaking further monitoring and assessments. The local authority will then produce a report with their consultants to determine what further work, if any, will be required.

The Council and Natural Resources Wales will report back to the Welsh Government and the Climate Change Minister Julie James who has promised to provide me with a full update.

The relevant agencies must now be allowed to conduct their work and be allowed to report back and undertake any work that is required.

All agencies are aware of their statutory legal duties and are committed to ensure the safety and public health of the local community.

Rhianon Passmore MS

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Correspondence from Caerphilly County Borough Council to Rhianon Passmore MS

“Dear Ms Passmore,

Thank you for your email dated 19th January 2023 regarding a request for an update on Ty Llwyd Quarry. It may help to provide some context about the site prior to updating you on Caerphilly Council’s latest actions.

The former Ty Llwyd Quarry was subject to the disposal of industrial waste by a private company, Purle Waste Disposal Services between 1969-1972. These operations ceased in 1972 and monitoring of the site was undertaken during the 1980’s. Due to concerns about the management of the landfill, Islwyn Borough Council purchased Ty Llwyd Quarry in 1990. Following leachate outbreaks on lower land and the potential risk to human health, Islwyn Borough Council purchased Pant-y-Ffynnon Farm and allotments in 1994. Islwyn Borough Council continued to monitor the landfill.

It is believed that the nature of waste that went into the former Ty Llwyd Quarry, included baled jay cloths, plastic reject pens, clay, flattened egg tins, general factory and canteen waste, Poly Chlorinated Biphenols (PCBs), fabrics, paper and card soaked by solvents, plastics and various chemicals.

Following the cessation of the filling operations in 1972, the site was covered with shale, stone dust, top soil and seeded.

Following the purchase of the site by Islwyn Council in 1990, a cap was installed to provide a waterproof shield to the top of the quarry, to prevent the ingress of surface waters and to provide a clean, safe working platform for any future investigations. A shallow, concrete-lined ditch was also installed along the top boundary, to divert surface water run off away from the site. The cap was constructed of Polythene sheets between 2 layers of geomembrane. It was laid on a ‘levelling layer’ of 150mm of well graded sand of crushed granite, which was covered with a ‘protective layer’ of 150mm of crushed granite and finished off with 300mm of clayey topsoil, which was seeded.

A significant amount of monitoring has taken place on and around the site since the 1990s and we continue to monitor the site to present day. The site has been improved over recent years with the installation of drainage works which have been successful in removing any leachate from entering the surface water channel. Recent prolonged wet weather has tested the newly installed drainage system and unfortunately it has not coped with the amount of flow, resulting in leachate over tipping and running through the woodland area (which is private land owned by the Council) and a small amount leaving site and spilling on to the public highway. This leachate was tested at the point in which it left the Council’s land and entered the highway. We are reviewing these monitoring results with Natural Resources Wales and Public Health Wales and these will shortly be communicated to residents and local ward members.

Ty Llwyd quarry is securely fenced off. The area of Pant-y-Ffynnon woodland is private land and the Council are currently working to restrict all access to this land and make it clear with appropriate signage that it is private land and therefore nobody should be accessing.

The Council is currently undertaking further monitoring and assessments with their consultants Arcadis and will produce a report to conclude this work when it is completed. We are also undertaking a high-level options appraisal for the site to understand what options are available to us should we need to deploy further management measures for the site.

We have met with residents onsite and explained how the site works and talked them through the recently installed drainage works and we are due to hold a further meeting in March with the local ward members and resident representatives to provide them with further updates on the work currently being undertaken.

I hope this goes some way to reassure you that the Council are taking the matters raised at this site very seriously and are continuing to undertake monitoring and deploy any subsequent required mitigation measures to ensure the site does not pose a danger to members of the public or surrounding water courses.

Should you have any further queries in relation to the site, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Maria Godfrey
Team Leader
Caerphilly County Borough Council”

Please also see attached correspondence from Welsh Government Climate Change Minister Julie James to Rhianon Passmore MS on the matter.