Concerns over coal spoil tip
TORRENTIAL rain during Storm Callum caused a coal spoil tip in hirwaun to appear to “collapse”.
heavy downpours caused part of the Tower Colliery tip to slip away.
TORRENTIAL rain during Storm Callum caused a coal spoil tip to appear to “collapse”.
Heavy downpours on Friday morning caused part of the tip at the Tower Colliery in Hirwaun to slip away.
Pictures from the site show a huge gap in the tip and a large amount of displaced material.
One resident said houses are around 600 metres from the area and concerns have been raised over the safety of the tip.
The managing director of Tower Collier said that the photographs did not show a collapse and said that it was a feature of water management systems used at the site.
A council spokesman said that the pictures showed a “scour” where fast-moving water can move sediment and that it was not a landslip.
The incident happened on the tip near the end of Tower Road in Hirwaun and is believed to have contributed to the flooding of the Heads of the Valleys road.
The mine closed in 2008 after the coal reserves were finally exhausted after 140 years of production.
Hirwaun councillor Karen Morgan said council engineers told her they found that recent intense rainfall had caused surface water controls on the site to go above their capacity “causing excessive scour of the tip and erosion”.
The surface water then moved overland towards the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road causing flooding, in combination with the heavy rainfall.
Cllr Morgan said: “During the bad weather on Friday by 10am it had happened.
“My concern is that it happened by 10am in the morning. As you can from the photos it collapsed at that point.
“I still have questions. We have rain here, they are calling it storm Callum but we have had heavy rain many times before.
“Whatever the cause, my main concern is that necessary action is taken now to ensure that this does not happen again.”
One concerned resident, who lives around 600 metres from the area, said: “It happened during the rains. I hadn’t been up there for a good while because of the weather.
“I took the dog up there and then I saw the collapse, I thought it’s not the best.
“It’s a popular area with cyclists and dog walkers.”
A public meeting about the incident is being held on October 29 at Ramoth Chapel, Hirwaun, at 7pm.
Cllr Morgan said: “What the issue is that I want reassurances that the integrity of the pit is safe and it will not happen again.
“If this had happened last autumn, it was at least twice the height, it does not bear thinking about.”
The A465 Heads of the Valleys road was closed at 8.25am on Friday due to flooding between the Rhigos and Hirwaun roundabouts.
The closure caused two miles of traffic queues in the area.
An RCT Council spokesman said: “Following the unprecedented weather from Storm Callum last weekend, the council is investigating flooding to the A465 and the conveyance of surface water from the Tower Colliery site.
“Officers have attended with the Site Manager to investigate the cause of the flooding and damage to the earth embankment within the site boundary.
“This has identified the damage as a surface water scour, and not a landslip, due to the intense rainfall - measured at 180mm by the Tower Colliery rain gauge in just 48 hours.
“Tower Colliery have had crews on site clearing the scoured material, and the Council will work with the site manager and the company’s drainage teams to clarify the current on-site surface water controls, and their proposals for the foreseeable future.”
Tony Shott, managing director of Tower Colliery, said: “There was no collapse or slip on any part of the restoration area.
“The photograph [shows] was not a slip but part of the water management systems used at the site to prevent the accumulation of water behind the front face screening bunds.
“There was no danger to anyone from the site operations let alone danger to the school in Hirwaun.
“The reason for the water flows off site was entirely due to the unprecedented rainfall - roads & properties all over Wales suffered floods.
“The water flows off site are controlled by drain sizes under the highways - our site pipes are limited in size to these.
“Opencast operations are controlled and monitored by the Health & Safety Executive in addition to Natural Resources Wales and the Highways Agencies with any breaches in safety examined in depth.
“All are aware of the weather and no contraventions have occurred.”
In January the colliery chairman Tyrone O’Sullivan said he hopes hundreds of homes and a new cultural centre will be built on the site within years.
For more pictures go to walesonline.co.uk