Engineers surveying a Swansea Valley hillside in Ystalyfera following landslide
SPECIALIST engineers have been busy surveying a Swansea Valley hillside after it collapsed before Christmas.
Neath Port Talbot Council has confirmed that it will be carrying out urgent safety work in Panteg, Ystalyfera, over the next days, and is urging eight households affected not to return to their homes as the risk of a further slippage still exists.
On December 22 residents from 13 properties had to leave after tens of thousands of tonnes of mud, debris and vegetation slid down the rock surface, blocking the road.
Heavy rain since Christmas and over the New Year period has caused further movement of mud and debris resulting in parts of the hillside continuing to be unstable.
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Neath Port Talbot Council's director of environment John Flower said the emphasis continues to be on safety and caution.
He said: "This is a very delicate and complicated situation. We have to be extremely careful that any clearance work does not make the situation worse.
"There are thousands of tonnes of rock, debris and vegetation which have moved on this hillside so everything we do has to be carefully assessed and planned.
"Our advice continues to be that the eight households should not return to their homes."
A large storage container, which was moved by the landslide, is still causing concern and the council is in contact with its owner regarding its removal.
Comments
by dynamicdave
Friday, January 04 2013, 11:24AM
“200 angry people attended a meeting last night in Ystalyfera community centre, where they expressed their concern over the lack of action on the landslide, and the worries that an application to start a drift mine on the mountain were also causing.
In the meeting they were told that nothing or very little would be done until a report had been compiled, envisaged to be ready by the end of January. Residents were also worried that the road affected would not be reopened,meaning that bus services were either not running or being diverted.
In order to try to expedite things they decided to form a residents committee in order to pressurise the council, that committee will meet at 7pm next Thursday.”