As a visitor to Cefn Coed you should not miss the hum of construction work and the beeping of excavators and trucks. But for the people who live there, this is “nothing” compared to what it was like.
As one resident put it: “You had neighbors visiting and they said, ‘What the hell is that?’ Because you felt the floor shaking.” Less than two miles from Merthyr Tydfil town center is Cefn Coed, the village on the right-hand side of the A470 before heading north into the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.
For years the community came to a complete standstill due to the 11 miles of major roadworks on the A465 passing through the village. The Heads of the Valleys road is expected to be completed by mid-2025 and is expected to cost more than £1 billion. It is expected that this will improve road safety – something that is theoretically welcomed by many local residents and road users. The Welsh Government has overall responsibility for the project, which will convert 11 miles of the A465 into a dual carriageway in each direction, in a bid to improve both safety and traffic flow. They have appointed Aberdare-based construction company Future Valleys to carry out the dualling.
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However, what should be a short-term disruption feels like a ‘never-ending battle’ for the people living in the village. In 2022 and 2023, business owners told WalesOnline how their trade was completely destroyed when the road bridge at the top of lower Cefn Coed High Street was closed in September 2021 due to reduced customer access to the village. Meanwhile, residents complained about ‘roaring’ pile drivers, constant trucks and dust. For the latest Merthyr Tydfil news, sign up to our newsletter here.
From October 2024 there will be some welcome improvements for residents. The road bridge has reopened, allowing traffic to flow through the community again. And while work is ongoing, construction is moving away from homes, leading to less dust and noise.
However, that has brought little relief to those who claim the works have left their homes cracked and damaged, or to those who have lost land and are fighting for fair compensation. Darryl and Ann Wilkins’ home in Pearce Court overlooks the works. The couple, who are in their late 70s, told WalesOnline that they had been treated “absolutely shocking” throughout the process.
Darryl showed WalesOnline several deep cracks in the house where the couple raised their family and lived for 40 years: “I started noticing problems with the house about 18 months ago.
“I was on the spin bike in the shed. I saw something in front of me and thought, ‘That’s a big spider web.’ Then I realized it wasn’t a spider web, but a crack. After that, several cracks began to appear.
‘There’s a crack [in the living room] and it goes all the way through the wall – and it’s a 2-foot wall. We have a crack upstairs that is bigger than that and it also goes straight through the wall. Before the work started we had a survey done which showed there was no damage to the house – now there are cracks in it [construction firm Future Valleys] tells us there is no damage.”
It’s not just cracks that worry the couple. Since construction began, 11 of their windows have been blown out and the couple says they have all been replaced by Future Valleys.
Darryl said: “What we noticed was that in my bedroom there was water above the bottom of the window – it kept filling up. We were there one day and the water was gone. There were so many vibrations that it shook the water out of the window. On 11 of our windows all seals were broken and broken. This started within a month or two with pile driving.
“We fought to win [our windows fixed] and we had them done about a month ago. They agreed to do it, but don’t want to admit responsibility. They said they would do it as a ‘gesture of goodwill’.”
The couple said the past few years had had a terrible impact on them both physically and mentally. This includes Darryl having asthma attacks for the first time in years during the height of the dust, he said. Although his breathing problems have improved, he says his mental state is worse than ever.
He said: “I have suffered terribly mentally and physically. I shake like a leaf. I’ve had endless problems.” He pointed to Ann and added, “She’s really worried about me.
“If they turned around and said, ‘We’ll fix all this in a few months,’ it would take the weight off our shoulders because we’ll never find the money to repair all this damage.” Darryl and Ann said they are not seeking financial compensation. All they want is for the damage to be repaired.
Mandy MacMillan lives a few doors away. She said she has been trying to find an attorney who can help her with the damage she says has occurred throughout her home since work started. This includes cracks in her walls and rock that has fallen from the top of her garage.
“The problems started when they were piling,” she says. “Everything in the house was shaking, everything in the cupboards was shaking. It’s less of a problem now, but the cracks are still there.
“We haven’t been able to do anything about it yet, because we haven’t been able to find a lawyer yet. I want a local lawyer who knows the area, but everyone I’ve contacted says they can’t work for us because they [work] with the Welsh Government.”
Work is currently underway to install a drainage system just outside Mandy’s house. Since work on the road started, Mandy says she has been working directly outside her home and has not had access to her garage for three years.
She said: “This whole thing has been frustrating. It’s the stress of it all, the mess, the dust, debris everywhere. It’s like living on a construction site. Recently they have the [old] drain from outside my house and install this [new] one in, which is good. However, they had to adjust it twice because the first design was wrong.
“I understand things can go wrong, but the first phase was supposed to last two weeks, but it ended up being countless weeks. Last year our garage flooded because the curb was removed from the outside of the house and we live at the bottom of a slope. This new drain looks good and we hope it will prevent flooding, but we won’t know for sure until it is finished and there is a heavy rain.”
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Ian Davies is part owner of a property on the street, where much of the garden has been temporarily lost to construction. A small part has been permanently lost.
Although Ian has received some compensation, he said he has had to fight “tooth and nail” to get a fair deal. He said: “We have known this for ten years. We entered into discussions with a company that was originally going to carry out the work. There were numbers around that were a lot higher than what we had. They lost the contract to Future Valleys.
“Three years ago, in August, they told us they would take the country within a week. They explained what would happen and offered virtually nothing in compensation.
“They took about 60% of the garden, and they gave a large part of it back. Within that 60%, 10% [will be permanently lost] with the shape of the road. Compared to the amount that was originally promised, they came back with a figure of less than 10% and then we had to fight and fight and fight to raise that a little bit.”
While Ian said he is pleased to have received an amount closer to what he believes is fair, he hopes lessons can be learned from the situation in Cefn Coed. He said: “To me, before they take land or do anything, they have to agree on the right timescales, the right compensation and the guarantee that everything will be fine – but they haven’t really done that.
“It’s been three years of ignorance and constant fighting for a fair deal, fighting to make sure they get everything right. I think the process is all wrong. It seems like they are taking first and then trying to agree on some kind of package.
“They offer you the bottom line on everything and then you have to fight tooth and nail to get what you think is a fair deal. When you fight, you get the feeling that you are a money grubber, when all we want is for everything to go back to the way it was.
“To be honest, after some moaning, they seem to have it all sorted out now. However, it has been a long and difficult process and they probably should have made a mandatory purchase [these properties].”
He said he feels for the people living in the area who may be older, more vulnerable, or who don’t have the confidence or representation to fight like him. He said: “At the end of the day we all have a life to live and we don’t have time to fight this all the time, but I do feel sorry for people who may not have anyone to represent them, such as the elderly. .”
A Welsh Government spokesperson, also responding on behalf of Future Valleys, said: “We are working closely with individual residents to resolve their concerns.”