Cwmtillery: Landslide residents want to leave their homes

Analysis by Steffan Messenger, Environment Correspondent:

If you follow the news in Wales you’ll have probably seen the video many times.

Shaky footage, hastily filmed on a phone of a hillside above the village of Tylorstown in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) giving way.

“Wow” the man behind the camera gasps – echoing the sentiments of a nation.

The landslide in 2020 reopened a painful scar on the Welsh psyche, and kickstarted a process – both practical and political – to shore up the country’s old coal tips.

It’s hard to believe how little was known then about exactly how many there were, where they were located, who owned the land and what condition they were in.

There’s been a major effort in recent years to plug those knowledge gaps and today’s announcement brings legal reforms and a new organisation to manage the situation in future.

But questions remain over how to foot the bill for a long-term fix, with the leader of RCT council telling BBC News in October as much as £800m could be needed over the coming decades.

Another discussion point is around the involvement of private firms offering to fund remediation work at certain tips by selling the coal they dig out as they go.