CRUSHED limestone and other aggregates from the Torcoed quarry complex between Crwbin and Porthyrhyd which, according to renewable energy company RWE Innogy, would be used in the construction of the Brechfa Forest West wind farm are at the centre of controversy.
Tarmac Trading, part of the Dublin-based Irish multinational CRH plc, has angered residents near the quarries with a planning application to remove the land separating its Crwbin and Torcoed Fawr quarries to create an industrial site about one-and-a-half miles long and a quarter of a mile wide.
The application, for which planning officers recommend approval, refers to six phases over 40 years, including restoration after quarrying ends.
The quarries – Crwbin in the west, Torcoed Fawr in the centre and Torcoed in the east – are on the north side of Mynydd Llangyndeyrn limestone ridge, a Site of Special Scientific Interest which has important archaeological remains, including two Neolithic burial chambers known as Bwrdd Arthur.
The quarry extension, at Ty Gwyn Farm, would bring the workings closer to the Neolithic remains.
Tarmac’s application seeks to regularise former unauthorised quarrying as well as the creation of new workings, to increase the potential output from 22 million to 33 million tonnes. The firm already has permission for a new access onto the B4306 between Bancffosfelen and Crwbin, just west of Blaengain Farm. The B4306 links Pontyberem and Bancffosfelen to the B4309 near Cwmffrwd, south of Carmarthen. The new quarry access would enable aggregates to be transported to Brechfa Forest, about 18 miles to the north on the far side of Carmarthen, without using an unclassified road.
TARMAC: ‘NO AGREEMENT IN PLACE TO SUPPLY BRECHFA FOREST WEST’
As yet, though, there is no signed agreement for Tarmac to provide aggregates for Brechfa Forest West wind farm, said Tarmac spokesman Ben Lowndes. This is despite the fact that construction is due to start this month.
The installation of a mobile crushing and screening unit at the Crwbin quarry does indicate Tarmac’s intention to ramp up production. The firm says, though, that only about 20% of the current annual output of one million tonnes would leave by the Crwbin exit. The bulk of lorries would continue to use the Torcoed exit at the other end of the quarry complex.
More than 200 people have signed a petition against the quarry consolidation plan and, in addition, Carmarthenshire County Council’s planning department has received around 35 letters of objection.
OBJECTORS’ FEARS
Mrs G Bowen, of Rock Cottage, Crwbin, wrote to the planning department expressing her ‘disappointment that your office did not consider a 40 year programme of activities, which would clearly impact local residents, important enough to warrant individual notification letters. Rather, you have opted for a single notice obscurely posted inside the boundary of Crwbin quarry’.
Dr P James, of Heol Dyddgen, Crwbin, commented: “Crwbin residents and homes are not safe now and will become catastrophically worse if Tarmac continue this work.”
Objectors draw attention to road safety dangers, dust, noise, encroachment within the 400 metre buffer zone agreed in 1998, and damaging impact on the ecology and hydrology of Mynydd Llangyndeyrn.
The proposals affect 10 registered public rights of way, and would also further damage the ecology of the ridge. Natural Resources Wales, regarded in some quarters as often ineffective in matters of environmental protection, has ‘significant concerns in relation to ecological impacts but consider that these concerns can be addressed by the inclusion of appropriately worded conditions requiring the implementation of ‘protected species mitigation measures’’.
The construction of Brechfa Forest West will demand huge quantities of aggregates and other materials, including about 80,000 cubic metres of crushed stone for the one-and-a-quarter mile new access road, half of which is expected to come from the Torcoed complex and half from the forest site itself. The 28 turbines will require the huge quantity of 9,800 cubic metres of concrete foundations. During the 18-month construction period, the number of two-way vehicle trips would exceed 13,000, an average of over 48 separate trips each day.
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