Cardiff homes no longer facing demolition

Homeowners who discovered they were living on top of toxic ash have finally been told their homes will not be demolished after more than a four-year wait.


Cardiff City Council first wrote to residents in the St Donats Road area of Leckwith, Cardiff, in November 2004 to tell them that the soil around their homes contained high levels of arsenic and other metals.

Further investigations revealed that the land around 106 of the road’s 110 homes was contaminated with arsenic, lead, and certain Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs).

In some areas of the road, levels of the contaminants significantly exceeded safe limits.

The problem dated back to the site’s use in the early part of the twentieth century for rubbish incinerators. Waste ash produced by the burners had been dumped on the land.

Following the discovery, residents have been waiting to learn whether their homes would have to be demolished.

The council had delayed a decision while it waited to see if revised Government guidance on contaminated land, which was published last August, would affect the amount of work needed at the site.

But council chiefs have now written to all the residents to confirm that only 41 of the properties in the area will need remediation work, and none will have to be knocked down.

Cardiff council’s deputy leader Judith Woodman told local media that the long wait had been because the council had waited for guidance from the Government to ensure everything was done correctly.

“We have pushed for guidance from Defra but it’s a process you have to follow. We wanted to make sure that we did it correctly for the residents.”

Kate Martin

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