A COMMONERS’ association is to receive £50,000 from a council towards repairing land devastated by a large mountain fire.

An area around the size of 300 football pitches above Blaenavon burned for more than a month when a fire broke out in July.

Torfaen Borough Council identified £50,000 towards responding to wildfires and at its September meeting the Labour leader Cllr Anthony Hunt confirmed that would be awarded to the commoners association for work, to start in October, to reinstate water courses on Mynydd Garnclochdy between Abersychan and Blaenavon.

Janet Jones, the independent councillor for Blaenavon, had asked if the money could be ringfenced for Garnclochdy.

At the meeting local farmers as well as council workers and residents were praised for how they responded to the fires as well as the efforts of the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, and their colleagues from further afield, in tackling the fires and assistance provided by the army.

The council’s deputy leader, Cllr Richard Clark, said he attended the scene of the fire in Blaenavon with the fire service, representatives from the army and UK Government Wales Office minister Anna McMorrin on Monday, September 14.

Cllr Clark said: “It was devastating and was actually like being on a film set of an apocalyptic disaster.”

He said farmers are still finding sheep who’ve died from breathing in smoke as the fire burned.

Cllr Clark said South Wales Fire and Rescue Service hasn’t specifically trained for fighting wildfires, but is now in contact with colleagues in Victoria in Australia to discuss developing that.

There was also questions about impact of the smoke on air quality and the council said it has now further studied research from a European Union monitoring project that identified Torfaen as having one of the world’s highest carbon emissions per square kilometre due to wildfires in July.

The council said it will raise issues around air quality, and advice for vulnerable people, in its response to the Welsh Government’s review of wildfires, while also resolved to voice the concerns of local farmers in that process.

A plan for community hubs to coordinate volunteers during emergencies such as fires and flooding is also being developed but Cllr Fiona Cross, the cabinet member responsible, said the work is in its early stages.

It will also have to establish what is safe for volunteers to do, she said: “We had people who wanted to step forward and fight fires which wouldn’t be safe without support, training and expertise”.