Residents who live near disused coal tips in South Wales say lessons have not been learned from the Aberfan disaster nearly 60 years on.
Their comments come after a disused coal tip in Cwmtillery, Blaenau Gwent, partially collapsed in November, forcing around 40 homes to be evacuated.
A coal tip is made up of waste material from coal mining, many of which have existed for several decades.
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Dianne Morgan, 68, has lived in the house she had built in the Cwmtillery ward for the last 10 years.
She told Sky News she didn’t know there was a category D tip – the most dangerous – behind her property, until the slip, which happened after heavy rainfall during Storm Bert.
“All we were told was underlying mines had been there. But there was no mention of a tip when we had searches at all,” she said.
“I’m not being funny, if I had known there was a tip behind me, I wouldn’t have built here.”
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‘Got to be sorted’
There are 2,573 disused coal tips in Wales, according to Welsh government data – the vast majority of which are in the former coal mining communities of the South Wales Valleys.
Three hundred and sixty of these are in the two most dangerous categories and are monitored at least once a year as they have “the potential to impact public safety”.
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Ms Morgan said she believes lessons have not been learned from the Aberfan disaster in 1966 when a colliery spoil tip collapsed killing 144 people, including 116 children.
A build-up of water within the tip after heavy rain caused it to suddenly slide downhill as slurry.
The tragedy is considered the worst mining-related disaster in British history and was more recently featured in an episode of Netflix series The Crown.
“The tip’s got to come down,” she said, but added that the authorities “don’t want to pay”.
“They think they’ll just drag it on and on and on and then people just forget, but you’re not going to forget are you? Because every time we have pouring down rain or if you hear a noise, you come out here and I have a check just in case it’s something,” she added.
“They all talk about they’re all broke, ain’t we all? But that doesn’t matter, it’s people’s lives you’re dealing with and people’s homes at the end of the day.
“It took everything we had to build this, if that came down and wrecked this, even if I wasn’t in it, we’ve got nothing.”
She said the slip before Christmas “could have been a lot worse”.
“Irrespective of who owns it, it’s got to be sorted…’cause you don’t know where it’s going to come down next’,” Ms Morgan said.
“We’ve got to have a surety that this tip is going to be seen to, and not only this tip but other tips for other people that could be in the same situation that we are, especially with the rain we’re having at the moment.”
‘Nothing getting done’
Brian Preece, 77, has lived in Cwmtillery all his life.
He told Sky News he “always played on the tips” as a child.
“We never had one inclination from anywhere in my life that them tips was dangerous,” he said.
“I played on them myself, my children played on them, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren.”
He said that if a larger tip would have come down, his street “would have gone” and the tips needed to be taken “down to a safe level”.
“They’ve said they was going to do this, and they said they was going to do that, but there’s nothing getting done and everybody’s worrying now,” he added.
“The only safe way on my behalf, and I’m sure everybody else, is they should be dropped.
“Alright, they say it’s going to cost a lot of money, [but] they’ve got to drop it. You can’t put a price on children’s lives, on anybody’s life, and it should be down.”
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Sky News has approached Blaenau Gwent Council for its response.
‘Nothing has changed’
In October, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced £25m in the budget for the maintenance of coal tips in Wales to ensure communities are kept “safe”.
Meanwhile, the Welsh government has outlined proposals for a Disused Tips Authority for Wales, which would take on responsibility for coal tip safety in future.
But campaigners say the money promised to tackle the issue is not enough.
Stuart Adams, 65, regularly walks the tips at Bedwas and Cilfynydd.
Mr Adams is part of the Clear South Wales’s Coal Tips group, which is calling for action to make the tips safer.
“It’s ordinary people that are going to be affected if there is a disaster, or even a minor slip, which has just happened in Cwmtillery. They still cause masses of disruption for people,” he told Sky News.
“I’m no expert on the financial side of things, but clearly [the money’s] not enough to make these places safe.”
Mr Adams said the tip at Cilfynydd Common collapsed in 1939 and was seen as “a precursor to an Aberfan disaster”.
“Luckily no one was hurt, and no one was killed [in the 1939 slip],” he added.
“The same could quite easily happen again as nothing has changed with regards to the tips.”
‘First of its kind’ legislation
A Welsh government spokesperson said it had invested more than £100m in coal tip safety since 2021 “to ensure our coal tip communities are safe”.
“We have also introduced modern legislation – the first of its kind in the UK – to prevent disused coal and non-coal tips from being a threat to human life,” they added.
“The highest risk coal tips (category C and D) are regularly inspected by the Mining Remediation Authority (MRA) and we continue to work with partners across Wales to inspect sites, including additional checks during extreme weather.”
A spokesperson for the MRA (formerly the Coal Authority) said it continued to provide “support, expertise and advice” to the Welsh government.
“We undertake an inspection programme on behalf of Welsh government and other agencies, providing recommendations for maintenance requirements,” they added.
“We also continue to directly manage the 26 coal tips that the Mining Remediation Authority owns in Wales and provide management services to other landowners as needed.”
