Maintenance work desperately needed

I HAVE just read the news that Mr Peter Perry will become the new chief executive of Glas Cymru on April 1, following the retirement of Mr Chris Jones, who will leave the organisation with a pension pot in the region of £3m and a fairly substantial annual pension.

I believe Mr Perry will take up his position as chief executive and will receive an annual salary in the region of £250,000, plus any performance-related bonus payments that will possibly accrue?

I would just like to put into the conversation an irrefutable statement “that Glas Cymru are the biggest vandals in the Brecon Beacons National Park”; and yet, while they can pay inflated salaries to their management team, they cannot find the finances to undertake the work needed to maintain the land they own in the catchment area located in the National Park.

The stone walls around the catchment area, which have been standing for over 100 years, have been allowed to crumble to the point where they are beyond repair; the metal railings around the reservoirs have largely been neglected to the point where they have been replaced with a “mish-mash” of temporary fencing.

Drainage systems have not been cleaned for years, with the consequence that adjacent footpaths around the reservoirs are now unusable.

Are there dead animals rotting in the intakes – who knows?

The former filter plant at Pontsticill is slowly crumbling and being allowed to fall into total disrepair.

I believe this is a listed building? The land in front of Taf Fechan Cottages, at the point where visitors who alight from the Pontsticill to Merthyr Tydfil service bus, when they either visit the mountain railway or walk along the reservoir dam, is a complete eyesore.

The representative of Glas Cymru, who I have spoken to in relation to getting this area cleared – not an insurmountable or costly exercise – says he cannot find the money to complete the work.

What I find unbelievable is that no-one seems to know if there is a labour force with responsibility for the day-to-day management of these areas.

Who decided, recently, that repair work was needed to the Dolygaer dam railings? Someone must have day-to-day operational control?

Is it so difficult to decide who makes these elementary decisions?

In conclusion may I ask if the new chief executive has ever visited the various catchment areas and intakes, or the treatment works that purify the water that flows into the distribution network?

These are surely vital components in any water company’s

environmental strategy?

I read about biodiversity and the WINEP proposals and yet the very basic work of maintaining a reasonably aesthetic approach to any land ownership within a National Park is seemingly beyond the capability of Welsh Water.

A breakdown maintenance policy seems to be the only thought in the minds of those who control the catchment areas, to the point where nothing gets done until the whole area resembles a bomb site, and by then it really will be financially impractical to remedy the malaise.

I would gladly welcome a visit to the area by any member of the management team of Glas Cymru, perhaps accompanied by someone from the National Park, so that they could give me their proposals and suggestions for what has gone wrong over many years of neglect, and how to go about remedying it?

David Rees Brynaman, Ammanford