Residents Feel Trapped as Landslip Closes Main Village Route
Residents report feeling "trapped" and farmers express concern that livestock could "starve" following a major landslip that closed the primary access road to a village several weeks ago.
The landslip occurred beneath the lane connecting Cwmyoy and Llanthony in Monmouthshire on 30 January, resulting in a vertical drop immediately adjacent to the road.
The diversion route now includes a single-track road on Wales' highest mountain road, which locals say significantly increases travel times. Some residents, including agricultural suppliers, are unable to use this alternative route.
Monmouthshire County Council stated the affected road will remain closed until a "safe, engineered solution" can be implemented. The council also warned that further ground movement beneath the road is likely, rendering it "extremely unsafe".
'There will be starving animals'
Mark Morgan, a Llanthony resident and farmer, described the impact of the closure on travel times. Since the R1 road closure, a car journey to Abergavenny now takes approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, compared to the previous 30 minutes, according to Google Maps.
Travel time to Mark's nearest hospital in Cwmbran has increased to 1 hour and 36 minutes by car.
Mark noted that actual travel times via the diversion often exceed those estimated by mapping services.
"My father, who's just coming up to 90, lives a couple of miles down the road," he said.
"Normally if he needs me for anything it's a 10-minute trip to come and see him but now I'm looking at two-hours to get there and two-hours to come home again afterwards."
He added,
"It's over two-and-a-half-hours if we have to go over the top [on the mountain road] to get to A&E. The post won't come over the top, they've said the road is too dangerous to deliver the post and yet they expect us to drive that way."
Mark expressed a desire for a swift resolution.
"Whether that's putting in some sort of temporary structure or putting a temp track across the field alongside the landslide."
"I understand that Monmouthshire County Council are moving as fast as possible but for people here it just seems that's not fast enough.
We have no timescale and people are rightly worried about these things."
Another local farmer, Bryony Gittins, highlighted the scale of the affected community, estimating around 150 residents impacted.
"That's a lot of people to then feel trapped and not be able to get out," she said.
"Although there is the alternative mountain road, for a lot of people that's not an option.
There are older people who aren't comfortable driving such a road, there are those needing medical attention, there are people who need constant medical care that need to go in for weekly hospital appointments. The kids miss their sports clubs, they miss their friends."
Bryony expressed concern for her flock of 850 sheep.
"I have huge concern of how I'm going to manage to keep the sheep food coming in that I need. The reliance on heavy agricultural vehicles is huge," she said.
"I don't have enough hay for them to last until when they'll be lambing from April and typically they're coming into a period now where they need to have a higher nutritional intake."
She emphasized the urgency for her pregnant ewes, particularly those expecting twins, who require additional concentrated feed soon.
"Otherwise their lambs aren't going to develop properly, they're not going to be born very strong," she said.
"The ewes won't be producing milk for them so the implications are huge not just economically for the farm business itself - if I'm not producing lambs to sell then that's my livelihood - but also in the welfare for the sheep themselves, they're hungry and they'll get hungrier and hungrier and I don't have anything to feed them, so it's worrying me a lot."
Bryony stated her future depends on a resolution within weeks.
"There will be starving animals," she said.
"The closer we get to lambing and pregnancy, it'll be a long time for veterinary care to come in to reach us.
There are other farmers in the valley that'll have cows that are due to calve and they will not be able to get the veterinary attention that they might need quite quickly, and it's not just that, there's also the need for other supplies like medical supplies like lambing supplies that all the farmers need and we can't get it".
Chris Powell, an agricultural contractor based in Llanthony, reported financial losses due to the access closure.
"Farming as an industry tend to use big vehicles, trailers and tractors. Some physically can't use the diversion," he explained.
"We can't get supplies in, we use a lot of red diesel in agriculture and tankers are refusing to use the diversion route because it's not suitable.
A lot of our customers are below the slip, so there's a huge percentage of customers we've had for decades that we're having to turn down.
Especially when generations have built the business up over decades and in this industry customer loyalty is a huge thing, so it's hard for us to let them down and then it's hard to get customers back."
Chris called for an emergency alternative route through fields adjacent to the landslip.
"A temporary diversion that would take less than a week to put in so residents could maintain access, businesses could run as normal while they stabilise the situation," he said.
Chris said he would like to see all the bodies involved "try to put in preventative measures to avoid this happening again".
'Serious risk to public safety'
Monmouthshire County Council has created a dedicated webpage to provide updates on the situation.
The council stated:
"Because the slip has formed a vertical edge immediately next to the carriageway, any further movement is likely to happen under the road surface. The tarmac may conceal signs of collapse until the moment failure occurs.
For this reason, the road remains extremely unsafe."
Specialist geotechnical engineers have inspected the site and, based on their advice and the ongoing deterioration, the council confirmed the road must remain closed due to a "serious risk to public safety".
The council also noted that some members of the public have removed concrete barriers and signage to continue using the road, urging people to respect the closure.
Authorities are coordinating with relevant departments and partner organisations to ensure essential services, including emergency access, school transport, refuse collection, and other key provisions, continue to operate.
The road will remain closed until a safe, engineered solution is designed and implemented. The council has initiated the necessary investigation, monitoring, and design work.
In an email to residents dated 27 February, the council described investigatory works as "positive" and stated it is working with contractors to finalise design and agree on mobilisation.
