Sacks packed with ‘building’ plastic polluting riverbank

TENS of thousands of pieces of plastic are polluting a Welsh river near a large building site.

More than 20 plastic bags have been spotted in the River Rhymney in Cardiff, stuffed with miniature polystyrene balls.

Images from the river in the Llanrumney area show riverbanks covered in the white plastic particles near the St Ederyn’s building development.

It comes after children were seen accessing the Persimmon Homes construction site and using the bags to sail down the river.

Pontprennau resident Kevin Russell said the bags were found split open in the water last week, and follow concerns raised about the way the materials are stored.

He said: “The building site fence was taken down and the bags were very easily removed.

“Persimmon went down and put the fence back up – it’s about 8ft or 9ft high – but it’s only kept together with a metal clip which is not difficult to remove.

“The ironic thing is that if you follow the fence around for about 50 yards it comes to an end so you can just walk into the site.

“I know they have security but it’s far over the other side of the site.”

According to the retired policeman, the bags have also been found burned and charred, with one picked up as far away as Penarth.

The industrial sacks are used as softlanding bags for builders working at height in case of a fall.

He said: “You can’t clear it up, it’s like trying to pick up needles in a haystack.

“Unfortunately there’s a lack of action. Persimmon need to be seen doing something about it.

“It’s just so disappointing, bearing in mind the government are highlighting the effect plastic has and trying to reduce it while this is going on.”

The discovery comes after Natural Resource Wales (NRW) charged Persimmon Homes £3,612 in clean-up fees following a similar incident last year.

In a bid to tackle the mess, members of volunteer group Cardiff Rivers will meet tomorrow to try to remove the bags from the water.

Dave King, treasurer of Cardiff Rivers Group, said: “We went to have a look yesterday and straightaway near Ball Lane we found a bag ripped open with polystyrene balls everywhere.

“There’s tens of thousands of them in each one. We went along the river and found 22 bags in total.

“It’s causing massive pollution as they go straight into the sea”.

The construction work at the St Ederyn’s Village development forms part of plans to develop 1,020 properties in the area.

Susan Fitzpatrick, natural resource management team leader for NRW, said: “Due to inappropriate storage of equipment and inadequate security, individuals were able to access the Charles Church/Persimmon Homes development site and take bags of construction plastic that were then left on the River Rhymney.

“While this isn’t a traditional case of fly-tipping, the responsibility to secure their property and retrieve these polystyrene-filled bags lies with the site owners, Persimmon.”

A Persimmon Homes spokesman said: “We have security in place to try and mitigate matters.

“If anyone witnesses this, it would be helpful if they could forward photographs and/or descriptions that we can pass to the police.”