MORE THAN 50 people crammed into Talywain OAP Hall to hear of the current negotiations taking place over The British last night.

Those in attendance voted resoundingly in favour of the draft resolution put forward by local resident John Cox to support Torfaen County Borough Council in acquiring the land with Gwent Wildlife Trust (GWT) managing the majority of the area.

The 1,300 acre site has been derelict for decades, since mining and iron working ceased in the area and is riddled with industrial contamination.

Previous attempts at reclaiming the land or to have private companies take control of the site have all come to nothing.

Torfaen chief planning officer Duncan Smith stated the council wanted it to come back into public ownership as the private sector have proven ‘unable’ to handle the site.

Giving an outline of discussions this year, he said: “HSBC was in negotiations with a mining company earlier this year to acquire the site but that fell through in February. We continued to talk to them and in May I persuaded them to not auction off the site and give us six months to see if we could do something.

“They gave us three months, as it was quite clear they wanted to be rid of the site by the end of the year and we have had to work quickly to put in place an alternative proposal.”

Torfaen council have been in negotiations with the Welsh Government to persuade them to provide funding to purchase the site.

The four options Torfaen have put forward to the government include a £3m basic clean-up, a £4m more rigorous option which Mr Smith said was the council's preferred option and another to have opencast mining on the site.

As part of the £4m option, the council would clean up the site and hydro-electrically pump large amounts of water from Cwmsychan Brook up to the surface, creating a wetlands that GWT would manage.

The site is currently worth £250,000. It was bought in 2006 for £7m by Castlemore Securities before being re-possessed by HSBC in 2009.

As a way to promote the plan to the Welsh Government, there is also a provision for 150 new houses along the cusp of the site.

Dr Cox said: "The proposal isn’t ideal and I’m sure I’ll be on the other side of the table to Duncan (Smith, planning officer) at some stage, but it’s the best we have had in more than 40 years."

After presentations from Lynda Clarkson of the Working Group and Veronika Brannovic of GWT a lengthy question and answer session took place followed by Dr Cox inviting the group to vote on the draft resolution.

Mr Smith also urged residents and the Working Group to email or write to communities’ secretary Carl Sargeant in order to show the level of public support for The British.