HGV crashes cost Mynyddislwyn church £20k in wall repairs

It has cost £20,000 to repair the wall over the years, said the warden

A community is calling for action to stop HGVs from damaging their ancient church's walls.

A dozen trucks have become stuck on a narrow road in Mynyddislwyn, Caerphilly county, over the past 10 years, including three in the past 12 months.

St Tudor's church warden Allan Sharpe said the road was being used instead of the wider B4251 because of confusing signs on a nearby industrial site.

Caerphilly council said it sympathised and had fitted new signs.

Mr Sharpe said in the decade he had been a church warden there had been 12 serious incidents and other less serious cases with 40-tonne lorries getting stuck and causing damage.

In the most recent incident his car was written off when a lorry became stuck, stopped, then rolled backwards down the hill.

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Allan Sharpe is the church warden at 12th Century St Tudor's

Mr Sharpe said: "Near to the church here we'd like to see some really hard-hitting signs to tell drivers if they proceed there'll be in really serious trouble, possibly a danger to themselves and other vehicles."

He said the cost of repairing the walls in the past decade had topped £20,000, not all of which was covered by insurance because driver's details were not always found.

Mr Sharpe said some HGV drivers were still unaware they could use the B4251 for access to the nearby industrial estate in Cwmfelinfach.

A Caerphilly council spokesman said: "It would seem that issues with HGVs using unsuitable routes are becoming ever more prevalent due to the increased use of Sat-nav units, not just in our county borough but country-wide and, as such, is proving to be a very difficult issue to resolve."

He said signs had been changed in response to the complaints about this situation.

"We fully sympathise with these difficulties caused to the local community, and officers have listened to concerns from residents and acted accordingly to the best of their ability," he added.

Mr Sharpe's car was crushed and written off by a lorry