Since the tragic event in Aberfan the mines and quarries Act of 1969 has been the primary legislation for safety of Spoil Tips. We asked NPTCBC for the records of previous inspections since 1969.
In response to FOI requests made for information, NPTCBC say for the periods
1969 - 1996
“There have been two local government reorganisations in the locality and the information requested in your particular request has not been passed over to the County Borough it would appear from a search of our records and archives”
1996 -2015
“Inspections have been undertaken up to 2015 but no information is currently held within our records i am advised. Despite an in-depth search of emails, the council officers cannot locate the said information. The Engineer in question who undertook this work no longers works for the authority therefore there is no scope to be able to identify information that could assist in your query”
2015 - 2017
“Following a verbal query from our planning section, it became apparent that there has been a misconception that the Inspections of disused tips had been transferred to Carmarthenshire”
2017 - Present
Following the realisation that they hadn’t the Engineering Section started work on setting up the current dissued tips monitoring.
The Cilmaengwyn Tip was first recorded on NPTCBC register and allocated the reference L044 on 19 October 2017 showing a wide area above Godre'r Graig village, that included two former sandstone quarries. There are no records of any site investigations at that time and NPTCBC say the tip was identified through an internal desk top study.
In June 2017 NPTCBC contracted the Coal Authority for a Tip Management program of Coal and Quarry Spoil Tips within NPTCBC. The program included Site inspections of all High, Medium and Low risk site and the last inspection were provided to NPTCBC 23 May 2019.
So what did the Coal Authority program say about the L44 Cilmaengwyn Tip in the June 2017 - May 2019 Tip Management Program?
Well nothing, it is not included in the program at all. A separate request was made to the Coal Authority for an inspection of the L44 Cilmaengwyn Tip by the consultants Earth Science Partnership on 17 May 2019 a day after being instructed by NPTCBC on the 16 May 2019 and 3 days after NPTCBC asked in an email to the Coal Authority "Do you know when you will be able to send the inspection reports?" on the 13 May.
NPTCBC said last week in response to an information request, that the L44 Cilmaengwyn Tip Inspection had not been included in the Coal Authority 2017-2019 inspection program because that program was only for Coal Spoil Tip. That does not appear to be true.
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