Kevin Davies says his garden fell into a river after his area was hit by a large landslide in the middle of the night – and he had previously complained of a crack in the structural walls.
A couple were left devastated after his garden suddenly collapsed into a river when a massive landslide he struck chaos in his area.
Kevin Davies, of Ystradgynlais, Wales, said his wife frantically woke him up after hearing a “loud bang” and noticed that part of his garden was gone. A few weeks ago, Mr Davies said he reported new cracks forming on the structural wall at the bottom of his garden to NRW and the council, a decade after seeing a sink hole in his garden when the water level rose from his garden. river and flow under the boundary wall.
The homeowner says he is “very worried” about the future of his family home following the incident. Mr Davies says he has been calling on Powys County Council and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to tackle the issue for years. He explained that the dilapidated boundary wall lies between the end of his garden on Llys Tawel and the fast-flowing River Tawe below.
While he had concerns that the wall would eventually come down, he said he didn’t think that would happen for a while — and not on an otherwise uneventful night away from the storms that we had seen at the beginning of the year. Mr Davies says he was previously told the wall was the owners’ responsibility – which he disputes.
“We’re all safe, we’re fine, but we’re very worried about our property,” he said. “This was just hours after a large piece of their garden wall collapsed into the river below. “I have been fighting for 10 years regarding this retaining wall with Powys and NRW Council because of river erosion and weakened wall. I have passed many parliamentarians, Senedd Members – and things do not look positive.”
“A while ago, I investigated how the wall was built as I thought the council or NRW was responsible for it, but they seem to think it is the responsibility of the owners. The retaining wall was built in 1912 after a big flood, it took about six months to build and it was built by Brecon County Council at the time, now it’s obviously Powys County Council, it’s about a quarter of a mile long and runs along the swift-flowing river Tawe.”
“There was evidence to show that the council had built the wall in 1912, but they denied responsibility for the wall. [previously] – so I made two appeals. I also first emailed NRW and they said it was the owners responsibility… 10 years ago a sinkhole opened in my garden after water from the river got under the wall and into my garden,” he continued.
“So last night my partner heard a loud bang at about 4.30am – I slept with earplugs so I didn’t hear it – so he woke me up and saw our garden collapsed into the river, so we saw the damage well. this morning, I couldn’t go to work today because I had to try to solve everything,” added Mr. Davies. “My house is fine at the moment but the garage is based in the garden – it’s really worrying. [to think of what else could collapse].”
“There are probably four houses affected, one belongs to a family with a child, it’s really worrying to think about,” added Mr Davies. “I’ve lived here most of my life, this was my mother’s house, my grandmother’s house – it’s not just the fact that it’s where we live, but it’s that sentimental aspect, this is my home . The thought of losing my home to erosion. …”
Mr Davies said that in the 70s and 80s, some work was done on the wall and about 10 years ago, NRW spent about £30,000 on “soil samples” to see how to fix it. He also mentioned a study from six years ago about stopping sinkholes from the river, which cost about £250,000, but no work was done. reports Wales Live.
A spokesman for Powys Council said: “Powys Council was made aware of a wall collapse on a section of the River Tawe in Ystradgynlais this morning and local officers attended to assess the situation. The river Tawe is designated as a main river and therefore the The main authority in this case would be Natural Resources Wales. We passed the details on them and they should be contacted for more information.”
Neil Stoddart from NRW said: “We know part of a retaining wall has fallen into the river at Ystradgynlais and we sympathize with the landowner affected. Our engineers are visiting the area to investigate and to assess any risk of flooding additive caused by accident”.
