Campsite forced to shut after land contaminated with sewage water

A decades-old campsite on the outskirts of Cardiff has had to close due to a long-running leak which has left the land contaminated. Miskin Mill Scouting Village in Pontyclun closed three months ago following advice from the council after a mains pipe running under the soil eroded.

There are now several breakages in the pipe which runs across the fields and has caused the site to become sodden and smelly with dirty water. Welsh Water has put up metal fences preventing people from approaching the area due to it being unsafe.

Graham Robinson, who volunteers at the site by helping with maintenance, said the pipe’s first breakage was 17 months ago and little has been done since. “The land has been contaminated for 17 months and we were able to work around it and still take some campers but now environmental health has advised we close and quite rightly because we can’t have anyone becoming ill,” he said.

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“We have lost all our revenue streams through no fault of our own. We’re 17 months on and it’s now got to a point where we’ve had no choice but to stop taking any visitors at all. Nothing is happening here anymore.” A spokesman for Welsh Water has apologised to Miskin Mill and said the matter will be resolved as soon as possible.

“The pipe has broken up,” Graham said. “It’s a cast iron pipe and is so old the vibration of the pipe with the water rushing through it it’s wearing thin and breaking up.

“When it was just the odd one or two breakages they were talking about repairing it but now there’s talk about relaying the whole system, which would mean excavating the whole thing. In the meantime it’s all leaking out everywhere and we don’t know how dangerous the contamination is.

"No revenue is coming in anymore and we have bills to pay. And at the moment our electricity and gas bill is quite high. It’s a terrible situation.”

The campsite is used mostly by schools and scouts groups for weekend trips. It’s typically booked up during the school holidays and at other times of the year.

“We had to close it because it is just too dangerous,” Graham added. “The fence isn’t going to stop a really inquisitive child is it? And imagine if something happened – we’d be slated. So we’re powerless. The worst of it is that we don’t know the timescale. We’ve been told it could be next year.”

A spokesman for Welsh Water, which is responsible for the pipe, said: “We firstly would like to apologise for the inconvenience that has been caused by the ongoing situation at Miskin Mill Scouting Village. We appreciate it has taken time to establish a way of resolving the matter but we had to ensure we carried out all of the necessary investigations first to identify the best solution.

“We are now in the final stages of planning the work to resolve the matter and will be liaising with the owners shortly to explain everything to them. We would like to thank them for bearing with us and assure them we will get the work completed as quickly as we can.”