As a visitor to Cefn Coed you can’t miss the hum of construction work and the beeping of diggers and trucks. But for the people who live there, this is “nothing” compared to what it used to be.
As one resident put it: “Your neighbors come in and say: ‘What the hell is this?’ Because you feel the ground shaking.” Less than three kilometers from Merthyr Tydfil town centre, Cefn Coed is the village on the right of the A470 before heading north towards Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.
The community has been brought to a complete standstill for years due to 11-mile main road works on the A465, which runs through the village. The Heads of the Valleys road, on track for completion by mid-2025, is set to cost more than £1bn and is expected to improve road safety; This is, in theory, welcomed by many locals and road users. The Welsh Government has overall responsibility for the project, which aims to transform 11 miles of the A465 into a dual carriageway in each direction to improve both safety and traffic flow. They appointed Aberdare-based construction company Future Valleys to carry out the duo.
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However, this disruption, which is supposed to be short-term, feels like an “endless war” to the people living in the village. In 2022 and 2023, business owners told WalesOnline how they completely ceased trading when the road bridge at the top of lower Cefn Coed High Street closed in September 2021 due to reduced customer access to the village. Meanwhile, residents complained of “roaring” pile driving, constant trucks and dust. For the latest Merthyr Tydfil news, sign up to our newsletter here.
As of October 2024, there have been some welcome developments for residents. The highway bridge was reopened and traffic was allowed to flow through the community again. Although work continues, construction is increasingly moving away from homes, ensuring less dust and less noise.
But this provided little relief to those who claimed the works cracked and damaged their homes, or to those who lost their land and fought for fair compensation. Darryl and Ann Wilkins’ Pearce Court home overlooks the works. The couple, who are in their late 70s, told WalesOnline they faced “absolutely shocking” treatment throughout the process.
Showing WalesOnline deep cracks in the house where the couple raised their family and lived for 40 years, Darryl said: “I started noticing problems in the house about 18 months ago.
“I was on the 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, it was a crack. Then various cracks began to appear.
“There’s a crack [in the living room] and it goes through the wall – and it’s a 2ft wall. There’s a bigger crack upstairs and it goes right through the wall. We had a survey carried out before we started work which showed there was no damage to the house – now we have cracks and cracks. [construction firm Future Valleys] “We say there is no damage.”
It’s not just the cracks that worry the couple. It has had 11 windows blown out since construction began, and the couple said they were all replaced by Future Valleys.
Darryl said: “What we started to notice was that there was water at the bottom of the window in my upstairs bedroom; it was constantly filling up. One day we were there and the water was gone. There was so much vibration it shook the water in the window. All the seals on our 11 windows had broken and burst. This , it started piling up within a month or two.
“We fought to get [our windows fixed] and we had these done about a month ago. They agreed to do this but do not accept responsibility. “They said they would do this as a ‘goodwill gesture’.”
The couple said the last few years have taken a toll on them both physically and mentally. This included Darryl having his first asthma attack in years at the height of the smoke, he said. He said although his breathing problems had improved, his mental state was worse than ever.
He said: “I suffered greatly, mentally and physically. I’m shaking like a leaf. “I had never-ending problems.” Pointing to Ann, he added: “She’s really worried about me.
“If they had turned around and said, ‘We’ll fix everything in a few months,’ that burden would be off our shoulders because we’re never going to 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 fixed.
Mandy MacMillan lives a few doors down. He said he had been trying to find a lawyer to assist him with the damages he claimed had occurred to his home since the work began. This includes cracks in his walls and rocks falling from the top of his garage.
“The problems started during public transport,” he said. “Everything in the house was shaking, everything in the cupboards was shaking. Now the problem has diminished but the cracks are still present.
“We couldn’t do anything about it yet because we couldn’t find a lawyer. I want a local lawyer who understands the field but everyone I contact says they can’t work for us because [work] With the Welsh Government.”
Work is currently underway to build a drainage system just outside Mandy’s house. Since construction began on the road, Mandy said she has been running errands just outside her home and has not been able to access her garage for three years.
He said: “This whole thing was frustrating. All of this is due to stress, confusion, dust, debris everywhere. It’s like you’re living on a construction site. They recently removed [old] Drain from outside my house and put this in [new] one, that’s good. However, they had to make changes twice because the initial design was not correct.
“I realize things can go wrong but the first phase was supposed to take two weeks but it turned out to be many weeks. Our garage flooded last year when the paving stone was removed from the outside of the house and we live at the bottom of a hill. This new drainage looks like a good job and we hope it will prevent flooding but “We won’t know for sure until it’s over and there’s a heavy downpour.”
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Ian Davies owns part of a property on the street which has temporarily lost a large part of the garden to construction. A small portion was permanently lost.
Although Ian received some compensation, he said he had to fight “tooth and nail” to get a fair settlement. He said: “We have known this for the last 10 years. Initially, we started meeting with a company that would do the work. The numbers were in a circular shape and much higher than what we had. They lost the contract to Future Valleys.
“Three years ago in August, they said they would buy the land within a week. They explained what would happen and offered almost no compensation.
“They took about 60% of the garden and gave most of it back. This 60% is within 10% [will be permanently lost] with the shape of the road. “They came back with less than 10% compared to the money originally promised, and then we had to fight and fight and fight to get it up a little bit.”
While Ian says he is pleased to have received an amount close to what he believes is fair, he hopes lessons can be learned from the situation at Cefn Coed. He said: “In my opinion, before they buy any land or do anything, they need to agree on appropriate timelines, appropriate compensation and guarantee that everything will be fine; but they didn’t actually do this.
“It was three years of not knowing anything, constantly fighting for a fair deal, fighting to make sure they could get everything right. I think the process is completely wrong. It seems like they take it first and then try to agree on some kind of package.
“They offer you the lowest on everything and then you have to fight tooth and nail to get a deal that you think is fair. When you fight, you feel like a money thief, when all we want is for things to go back to the way they were before.
“To be fair, after some moaning they seem to have it all figured out now. But it’s been a long and difficult process and they probably should have been a compulsory purchase. [these properties].”
He said he felt sorry for people living in the area who were older or more vulnerable or who didn’t have the confidence or representation to fight like he did. He said: “At the end of the day we all have lives to live and we don’t have time to struggle with it all the time but I feel sorry for people like the elderly who don’t have anyone to represent them.” .”
A Welsh Government spokesman, also responding on behalf of Future Valleys, said: “We are working closely with residents to resolve their issues.”