Council facing judicial review challenge over decision that former waste site was not contaminated land

This followed a pre-action letter sent last month. The Clean Up Ty Llwyd Quarry campaign has raised £14,788 towards its £20,000 target through a Crowd Justice page.

Reverend Paul Cawthorne, who leads the campaign, said the challenge to Caerphilly was on three grounds.

The first is that the group says evidence does not support the council’s conclusion about the risk of significant harm to people’s health, including how it assessed who might be exposed to the persistent organic pollutant PCB and in what ways.

Other grounds are that Caerphilly misinterpreted the statutory guidance and applied the wrong approach when deciding whether the land should be classed as contaminated, and the lawfulness of the decision process.

According to the group, even though it is more than 50 years since toxic waste was last dumped, Ty Llwyd continues to leak harmful chemicals into the surrounding woodland and river.  

A Caerphilly spokesman said: “The council is aware that a judicial review application has been submitted and, if it proceeds, we would obviously robustly defend our position in this matter.”

Mark Smulian