P-06-1476 1000 Meter mandatory buffer zone for all new and existing quarries - Correspondence from the Petitioners to the Committee, 14 March 2025

Ref: P-06-1476

Petitions Committee.

I would like to make a short statement on some concerns regarding the current expansion of Craig-Yr-Hesg quarry in response to the letters received of the relevant parties.

First of all, with regards to the response off RCT stating that as of (14/02/2025) no breaches of planning controls at the quarry, I would like to mention that on Feb 2025 the AOP (Air over pressure) which has a planning condition limit of 120 db was independently measured at 124, which triggered RCT to notify Heidelberg and issue them a notice to review current blasting conditions to ensure the limits are not broken again, if continued to be broken then this could trigger other actions as detailed in their own correspondence.

I would like to state that independent monitoring of blasting was only started on 25/10 2024 and since then has seen one AOP obove the limit.. Looking at past data supplied by RCT, it is evident that AOP has gone above the 120 limit a further 9 occasions from 16/08/2018. With this data now evident, how confident can we be with all breaches being reported and acted on.

DATE	AOP
16/08/18	127
10/09/18	126
04/01/19	127
08/01/20	125
27/01/20	125
25/08/20	125
24/10/22	121
20/12/22	125
11/01/25	120
28/02/25	124

Traffic Controls,

Whilst I appreciate controls are in place for vehicle movements, the data given is an the limit expected over 12 months and then averaged out, what it doesn’t take into consideration is the influx of vehicles in a short space of time during early  mornings and school transport hours, This is having a significant impact on the safety of pedestrians and fellow road users. On monitoring from members of the community we can now confirm that 40% of the vehicle movement allowance arrives between 07:00 & 09:00 Mon-Fri. Would also like to republish the fact that pavements along the route to the quarry, in places only reach a width of 39 cms where the recommended safe width is 100cms, This is increasing the risk to public safety as far as pedestrians run the risk of travelling to Pontypridd by foot and passing a blind corner of a bridge at its narrowest point, We have had assurances in the past that this would be looked at but nothing went further and was found to be broken promises.

Flooding

The recent events of flooding in Pontypridd yet again reached the media, I personally have been down to Berw Road on both occasions to help the people in need, to be honest with you, when I see people on their hands and knees trying to put garden chippings in recycling bags to use as sandbags is heartbreaking, During the floods, we saw several areas of the quarry flooding with water flowing down from the bunds at a fast rate and flooding the rugby pitch and nearing houses, This has never happened to this scale before. With quarry management stating that some parts of the bunds were 7 meters high but yet they advertise its only 3-5 meters high in Heidelbergs publications, it also begs the question???? Are we being told the truth?

The flooding also exposed a lot of dust material that went onto the public Darren ddu raod that RCT and NRW are looking at.  We are starting to have issue after issue and when its stated that we cant have a road drainage plan because “they don’t have one” is quite frankly worrying.

I welcome anyone to come up to the areas in question and I will gladly escort you around physically showing the communities concerns.

We need re-assurances that all is ok and the community will not be remembered as “Why didn’t we listen to the community” if a devastating event happens in future.

Thanks very much

Chris Whiles

(Concerned Glyncoch resident)