Travellers told to stop excavation
A TRAVELLER group has been ordered to stop removing tonnes of earth from a hillside in the Welsh Valleys.
Blaenau Gwent council has served a “stop notice” to the landowners, after locals raised fears that the excavation could cause a landslip.
Land below Nantyglo Rugby Club was excavated a week ago.
Residents living beside the land, which currently looks a mess with mounds of dirt visible, said travellers have been digging up the site. It is understood the group has bought the site but as yet doesn’t have planning permission to develop there.
The works have been going on for more than a week, with residents complaining of heavy machinery since late March.
More than 600 people have already signed a petition against the work being done on land close to Porters Road and Banna Bungalows in the town.
A resident who has lived in Banna Bungalows for 25 years, but wanted to remain anonymous, said he has been left with huge mounds of earth behind his property.
He said: “They’ve just completely bulldozed the ground. I don’t know what is going on there, but they say they are going to put caravans there. It’s terrible.
“It’s private property so I suppose we can’t do anything about it. I understand they’ve done it without any permissions. I’ve got a big mound of soil behind my window.”
Land registry documents show there is a covenant on the land, which dates back to 1996, stating it can only be used for grazing. It states no buildings should be erected on the land.
The owner of the site said the land would be used for grazing horses.
In a statement, a spokesman for Blaenau Gwent council accused the group of breaching planning control.
They said the council had ordered the work to stop, at least temporarily.
“We have served a temporary stop notice to the landowners and interested parties using the relevant powers under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990,” they said.
“The notice will remain in force for 28 days and we are considering options for when it expires. We consider that there has been a breach of planning control by the unauthorised excavation of this land. The notice requires that activity is stopped with immediate effect.”
The council alleges work hadn’t been carried out with “sound engineering practices”, adding that it had taken the decision to force the developers to stop due to issues “including appropriate retaining works, site compaction, appropriate use of gradients to embankments and drainage to ensure the long-term stability of the site”.
After worried residents contacted the council regarding the safety of the land and the potential of a landslip, the council spokesman said the authority commissioned independent geotechnical and geoenvironmental specialists to assess the stability of the land. The specialists confirmed that the land posed “no immediate risk to nearby properties”.
Life as a traveller in Wales is not easy and finding appropriate accommodation can be very difficult. Local authorities are obliged to provide sites for travellers, but in Wales many authorities still do not hit targets for traveller sites.
In response to the petition signed by locals in Nantyglo, a counter-petition has been created by someone claiming to be part of the traveller group, who said: “Our family and kids need somewhere to live, to raise our family. [The] council is not providing us with the right needs so we are doing our own property up, which we are entitled to do.”
In 2022, the Senedd’s Local Government and Housing Committee called for immediate action after its report illustrated “wide-ranging failures by the Welsh Government and local authorities to provide adequate sites for Gypsy, Roma and traveller communities”.
The report found many sites were situated in inappropriate areas such as beside dangerous roads or far away from services. John Griffiths MS, chairman of the Local Government and Housing Committee, said at the time: “The committee is united on what the Welsh Government and local authorities need to do next.
“Many sites are in completely inappropriate areas next to A-roads, with uneven paths and blocked drains. Some people are stuck on multipleyear waiting-lists with no end in sight.
“The Welsh Government must make sure that local authorities have the resources to tackle these issues, but they must also hold them to account when things do not improve. It is clear that anti-traveller prejudice on a local level, and throughout society, is still quite prevalent and that tackling this should be a priority.”
This was supported by Travelling Ahead, an organisation supporting nomadic people, which told the committee that “some of the things that have gone on locally and regionally would not be acceptable if that was about any other group of citizens or any other ethnic minority”.
This week the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales published its findings following its own investigation into two local authorities in Wales following a complaint, which found the “Welsh Government has failed to ensure local authorities are carrying out their duties in respect of the provision of accommodation for Gypsies and travellers”.
The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 introduced a legal duty on local authorities to produce Gypsy and traveller accommodation assessments (GTAAs) and submit them to the Welsh Government for approval.
But the ombudsman found that while the legal duty to provide accommodation falls to local authorities, the Welsh Government had “failed to fulfil its critical leadership role in ensuring this happened”. No monitoring of approved GTAAs had taken place since January 2020.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We accept all the recommendations of the report.
“We are working with Gypsy, Roma and traveller people, partners and local authorities to meet their needs as a key part of our Anti-racist Wales Action Plan.
“We are providing £3.44m in 202425 for local authorities to improve, extend or build new Gypsy and traveller sites.”