Meeting Minutes 30 January 2023

Bryn Engagement Group - Minutes of the meeting held on 30 January 2023

Present

  • Councillors: N. George (Chair), A. Gair, J.A. Pritchard, H. Pritchard.
  • Resident Representatives: H. David (MS), L. Price, V. Muxworth, M. Roberts, S. Spencer, R. Bevan, K. Roberts, G. Davies.
  • Bryn Group: J. Price and R. Thomas
  • NRW: D. Griffiths and J. Rock
  • Officers: M.S. Williams, R. Hartshorn, C. Edwards, C. Davis, R Thomas, H. Lancaster

Welcome and Introductions

Introductions were made and apologies were noted from Councillor P. Leonard and J. Goldsworthy (Natural Resources Wales).

Terms of Reference

Members considered the Terms of Reference and referred to the section of the terms of reference and the requirement that resident representatives change at each meeting in order to ensure maximum community reach.  It was felt that this arrangement would be less productive and would lack consistency not only in terms of meeting proceedings but also in the ability to feedback information to the wider community.

The Chair expressed his preference that this requirement stand for the first few meetings and then be reviewed as he was wanted to engage with a wide range of residents and so be able to gather different opinions, knowledge, and perspectives.

Residents explained the difficulties that they had experienced in finding volunteers willing to participate in the Engagement Group and supported the view that continuity of membership would be vital to the Group’s success in terms of community engagement. It was noted that any change to the terms of reference would need to be considered and approved by Cabinet.

The Chair agreed to take the comments back to Cabinet.

Reference was then made to highway traffic movements and the increase in vehicles, particularly wagons and other heavy-duty lorries.  The Chair advised that Highway Transportation did not form part of the terms of reference for the Group.  Previous traffic surveys were referenced, and Officers advised that with so many different vehicles using this strategic section of roadway, it was not possible to attribute any increased traffic movements to Bryn operations.  It was further noted that highway and traffic issues were out of the control of the Bryn Group.

Resident Representatives believed the increase in heavy vehicles such as lorries on the road were a direct result of increased operations at the site, and that traffic surveys were more relevant now than ever.

It was agreed that a Highways Officer would attend the next meeting to speak to traffic surveys.

Roles and Responsibilities for Members of the Engagement Group

Following discussion and debate it was agreed that Nitrate Regulation needed to be added to the list and noted that the assigned regulator was Natural Resources Wales. It was noted that the Bryn Group were already working to the new regulatory requirements, so there would be no change to their working practices as a result of the new legislation and as such there would be no impact to residents.  The Senedd Member felt that as Wales had been declared a Nitrate Vulnerable area and in order to gauge the impact of the new regulatory legislation it should form part of the Engagement Group’s areas of responsibility.

In terms of communication and engagement a Member queried if there was any assistance available to help residents, local ward members with the production of the newsletter to compliment the website Residents Representatives were particularly conscious of those who were digitally excluded.

H. Lancaster, the Engagement Manager confirmed that she would be happy to work with the Engagement Group Members and Residents to ensure engagement with the wider community and would be providing a full update on engagement activity in a later agenda item.

Update from Natural Resources Wales 

D. Griffiths summarised the activities carried out by the Bryn Group and regulated by Natural Resources Wales.  It was noted that for 2022, NRW had received a total of 71 odour complaints, illustrating a year-on-year reduction.

In relation to Enforcement Action, it was further noted that NRW were in the process of issuing a formal caution to Bryn Aggregates Ltd in relation to the contaminated bund and a letter of warning issued to Bryn Recycling to a water pollution incident that took place on 15th January 2022 of silt within the Nant Caeach.

Completed site inspections were noted and compliance assessment reports detailed. It was agreed that the Site Inspector would attend the next meeting to provide greater detail on inspection processes.

It was also agreed that compliance assessment reports would be amended to show the corrective actions being taken by the Bryn Group and a note of explanation and further detail be included to provide clarity on the various areas of the report, such as the assessment scores matrix, to avoid confusion and misinterpretation of the data being presented.

Reference was made to a fire on the Bryn Group site and J. Price outlined the incident and how the organisation had responded.

Clarification was sort as to why certain compliance deadlines had been extended and it was confirmed that a compliance deadline can be extended for a variety of reasons, and this was not unusual.  It was further highlighted that certain actions had be delayed because of the COVID-19 lock-down and furlough periods which had impacted on the availability of engineers, parts/equipment etc.

Update From Caerphilly County Borough Council

The Group were referred to pages circulated the Environmental Services and details of odour complaints were outlined. It was noted that in 2023 only 1 odour complaint had been received, in 2022, 16 odour complaints had been received and in 2021, 53 odour complaints had been received.  Due to the number of complaints received in 2021, during the main spreading seasons for the farm, Environmental Health also conducted proactive monitoring visits around the Penybryn/Gelligaer/Nelson area.  A total of 15 proactive visits, involving 2 visits per day during the farms 3 spreads which occurred in March/June/July and August.  Environmental Health concluded from their visits that the smell from digestate spreading on land associated with the Bryn Group did not constitute a Statutory Nuisance.

In terms of other complaints during 2022, there had been 17 noise complaints, 1 smoke complaint, 3 blast complaints and 0 dust complaints. In 2023 only 1 noise complaint had been received to date.

Clarification was sought as to whether the noise complaint had been due to blasting activity in the quarry, Officers confirmed that this had in fact been due to noise from fans within the milking plant and had been resolved very quickly.

Officers confirmed that they did work closely with Natural Resources Wales on complaints.  Resident representatives detailed the numerous issues that residents were experiencing when trying to report complaints to the various regulatory authorities and queried why a consistent methodology for collecting complaint information could not been introduced across the board.  This would make it easier for residents to report issues and would go a long way to helping ease the frustration currently being experienced.  They also advised that there were times when residents were unable to get through at all.   Officers outlined the CRM system used by CCBC to log calls, complaints etc. and confirmed that they were not aware of any instances where the system had been down, however if residents provided dates of when they were unable to get through, Officer would investigate the systems functionality at those times. It was agreed that it was vital to get as much detail as possible, particularly in relation to odour complaints such as location or a post code and if possible the time of incident would be a priority.  Residents’ representatives believed the low number of complaints received related more to residents’ frustration with reporting rather than any actual improvement.

The Group discussed the use of odour diary sheets and Environment Health Officers confirmed that these were not being retuned with any consistency and emphasised that they would be unable to investigate issues if they were not reported. 

Resident representatives agreed that they would be able to follow up on the return on diary sheets and would feed back to the community on the need to return them.

The Environmental Health Case Officer for the site confirmed that she personally contacted residents making complaint and that they have a direct dial number for her, and she would update the database immediately. It was agreed that the introduction a ‘proforma’ for complaint information to be used by regulators and the Bryn Group should be introduced. The Bryn Group agreed that they would be happy to implement such a proforma.

The timeframe for response to odour complaint was discussed and due to the transient nature of odours the importance of timely and detailed reporting information was emphasised.

It was agreed that the NRW Regulator for the site would attend the next meeting to explain regulator approaches.

Dusting Monitoring Results

Consideration was given to Air Quality data collated from the Pen-y-Bryn area, the Group were asked to note that between the 14th August 2020 and 17th August 2021 the monitor was not operational as it had been sent to America for calibration checks and had experienced further delays due to quarantine restrictions and reinstallation difficulties.

It was noted that continuous air quality monitoring had operated in Pen-y-Bryn since November 2018.  The results automatically captured and sent electronically to an independent specialist company for analysis.  3 data sets were presented to the Group and confirmed that there was no linkage between quarry blasts and the occasions identified in data set 2 where the daily mean exceeded PM 50ug/m3 .  However, 5 of them had coincided with national high pollution episodes as reported by Bureau Veritas UK.  Throughout this period, there were 4 blasts in the quarry, none of those dates coincided with the exceedance in the daily mean and the results to date were reassuring and signified good air quality.

The Group queried the monitoring of finer dust particles at PM 2.5ug/m3 considered to be the most harmful in terms of health.  The Environmental Services Manager confirmed that their monitoring was guided by Public Health Wales recommendation at PM 10ug/m3.  The Bryn Group confirmed that their monitoring did analyse PM 2.5 and advised that they would be happy to share their results and also confirmed that there was a live feed to the monitoring station available on their website.  Residents representatives confirmed that they had also invested in dust monitoring equipment and would be happy to share any data it collected.

The Bryn Group advised that they monitored PM 2.5, PM10 and PM40 and that their equipment incorporated a weather station, with monitors stationed at 3 locations, the bund boundary, Gelligaer and Pen-y-Bryn.  It was noted that seasonal samples were taken and an annual report produced at the end of the season. Officers also confirmed that dust samples were taken from Mr Reynolds car during different time periods and there had been no correlation between the quarry and those dust particles.

It was confirmed that the link to the live feed would be added to the Bryn Group webpage.  J. Price advised caution when viewing the live feed as it could easily be misunderstood, especially if you were not aware of the methodology or intricacies of the monitoring process and provided an update on how data is analysed over a long period of time, taking into account mitigating factors such as wind direction etc.

The Group discussed dust control and damping processes at the quarry and noted that there had been no dust complaints for some time, and analysis of dust on cars and windowsills had been unable to prove any link with the quarry operations.

J. Price provided detailed information on the blasting and damping procedures at the quarry and advised that a new company had been appointed by the Bryn Group who were utilising a different type of explosive.  Clarification was sought as to whether infusing detonation sites with water, as used in the mining industry would help to reduce dust generation.  Ms Price agreed to feed this question back however felt that this process might have a negative impact environmentally. 

Overview of Community Engagement Activity

The Transformation Manager for Engagement updated the Engagement Group on the recent site visit to Gelligaerwellt Farm and confirmed that it had been well attended and provided a valuable insight into the site’s operations.

The Engagement Group were advised that the next step was the launching of the Bryn Engagement webpage which provided a single source of information for the community and confirmed that following the meeting she would update it with responses to the Residents Comments, Complaints and Concerns presented at this meeting.

Clarification was sought on the recent fire on the site and the level of qualification for the technicians operating the AD facility.  J. Price confirmed that as the AD Plant Manager she had a Master Degree and was a Level 4 Plant Operator as required by regulators and is one of the highest qualified AD Plant Managers in the country.  Training on the control system is pre-written by the technology provider in line with regulation requirements and is backed up by them.  Both engines have a full maintenance contract and a specialist alarm system and meeting all operational standards.  It was emphasised that there had never need a fire at the Bryn AD Plant. The only fire risk associated previously with other AD Plants had been within the control cabinet and would be electrical in nature.  The Bryn Group has an integrated fire suppression system, annually monitored and within fire resistant housing.  The only other reported incident of fire at an AD plant was due to a lightning strike to a tank, the Bryn Group’s AD tank was of a different design and has an earthed system and would not catch fire.

Update from Bryn Group

Members noted the updates given throughout the meeting from the Bryn Group and noted that due to a forthcoming Planning Application, the permit extension could not be discussed at this time.

Any Other Business

The Transformation Manager for Engagement confirmed that she would take forward the matters raised at the meeting and would contact residents about a possible newsletter and would take forward the issues raised by residents and add them and responses to the webpage.

Meeting Closed At 15:20pm