Ty Llwyd illegal toxic chemical leachate flow to field and river in 2024
Dear Natural Resources Body for Wales,
Noting NRW statement in Jon Goldsworthy’s name:
Update, 10 July 2023 regarding Ty Llwyd quarry. Jon Goldsworthy, Operations Manager for Natural Resources Wales said: “Our investigation into the pollution incident that occurred in January this year at Ty Llwyd quarry, Caerphilly has now been completed. We have issued Caerphilly Country Borough Council (CCBC) with a warning as our enforcement response for an unauthorised discharge activity under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016. This is based on the proportionality of the offence committed and the ongoing commitment CCBC are making in ensuring future discharges do not occur. We will also be recharging CCBC for our costs of responding to and investigating the incident under the ‘Polluter Pays’ principle. It is likely that CCBC will require a permit to discharge to water or ground and they have appointed consultants to advise them of the necessary actions to control any further pollution from this site. We understand that CCBC are awaiting these proposals from their consultants. Once the proposals are available and actions are agreed, timescales will be imposed. Failure to abide by the agreed milestones may result in additional enforcement action. We will continue to work closely with CCBC to provide technical advice and guidance to tackle this issue and protect the environment, local communities and wildlife from the impacts of this legacy.”
https://bylines.cymru/environment/pcbs-i...
Request:
Please release all evidence and analytical documentation held by NRW about:
1.a) the veracity or otherwise of the NRW statement in Jon Goldsworthy’s name “ensuring future discharges do not occur” of leachate unconsented from Ty Llwyd to community woodland or the contaminated horses’ field below the woodland, with reference to the period from statement in July 2023 to end of first quarter of 2024.
b) how many legal breaches have been recorded by NRW in this period?
2. whether the use of “agreed milestones” has led to continuing legal breaches and what enforcement action with positive impacts NRW as regulator has taken about the continuing legal offences other than merely tolerating them
3. whether the current drainage work on the edge of the main road below the contaminated horses’ field will carry diluted leachate and so be a fresh or continuing legal breach.
4. whether the works at (3) are in conformity with NRW’s statutory notice of 4/4/24 in Kate Rodgers’ name.
Comment:
Our team looks forward to proper full containment of leachate from this site and legal offences documented as happening since 2001 ceasing, so that decades of nationally notorious regulatory dysfunction at this site and at its English equivalent Alvanley Commonside will finally cease.
Then the law of Environmental Protection Act Part 2A will finally be shown to be allowed to function as Parliament intended.
Yours faithfully,
Paul Cawthorne
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ein bod wedi derbyn eich ebost.
Bydd y Tîm Mynediad at Wybodaeth yn ymateb i'ch cais cyn gynted ag y bo
modd, a dim hwyrach nag 20 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl derbyn eich cais.
Croesewir gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg a byddwn yn ymateb yn Gymraeg, heb i hynny
arwain at oedi.
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Dear Natural Resources Body for Wales,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Natural Resources Body for Wales's handling of my FOI request 'Ty Llwyd illegal toxic chemical leachate flow to field and river in 2024'.
Should a response have been issued by now regarding these serious legal compliance matters?
Yours faithfully,
Paul Cawthorne
Dear Reverend Cawthorne,
We acknowledge receipt of your recent Environmental Information Regulation
(EIR) request. We understand the importance of transparency and
accountability in environmental matters and appreciate your continued
interest.
However, after careful consideration and in light of two refusals and two
internal reviews pertaining to the application of the Manifestly
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Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Miriam Jones
Arweinydd Tîm Cwynion a FOI | Team Leader FOI & Complaints
Cyswllt Cyfoeth | Customer Hub
Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru | Natural Resources Wales
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From: Paul Cawthorne <[FOI #1124563 email]>
Sent: 29 May 2024 07:59 AM
To: Tim Mynediad at Wybodaeth / Access to Information Team
<[email address]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Ty Llwyd
illegal toxic chemical leachate flow to field and river in 2024
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Dear Natural Resources Body for Wales,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information
reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Natural Resources Body for
Wales's handling of my FOI request 'Ty Llwyd illegal toxic chemical
leachate flow to field and river in 2024'.
Should a response have been issued by now regarding these serious legal
compliance matters?
Yours faithfully,
Paul Cawthorne
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Dear Miriam,
This is a manifestly unreasonable decision, as I’m sure you and Helen F-O are aware.
Please confirm for the legal record whether it was approved by CEO level, following my multiple attempts at constructive dialogue of recent years, such as in letter reproduced here:
https://www.gmwatch.org/en/106-news/late...
How predictable, now the BBC expose series is happening, that NRW wishes to stop answering legality questions.
It is NRW having ignored the illegalities at Ty Llwyd, Cefn Mawr, Maendy etc for too long until last year which is now making the extra burden of work.
That is the responsibility of NRW senior management failure and expert incomplete briefing such as that of Trystan James, not of the researcher pointing up the ongoing illegalities.
Surely assisting NRW to belatedly begin to uphold the law at these sites should be welcomed by a regulator rather than misclassified as unreasonable.
Yours patiently,
Paul Cawthorne
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