RESIDENTS of a quiet Cwmbran community are angry about council works they say have made their neighbourhood an eyesore.

Lorries began dumping soil and hardcore on former recreation land alongside the river Afon Lwyd in Llanyravon last November.

Torfaen council says the work is to improve flood defences - but residents of Caernarvon Crescent, whose houses back on to the area, claim they were never told about the development.

And they are increasingly angry about the building work which they claim is ruining their quality of life.

"There's been this growing mound of muck and sludge over my back garden every day and no-one has told us what it is," said resident Fred Coleman, 67.

"Lorries have been dumping this stuff infrequently for a few months now.

People are walking all over the big piles of muck and it's a terrible mess.

"We've had only ever had one small flood about 30 years ago and that wasn't a big one at all."

Neighbour Bill Dunning, who has lived in the street for 40 years, said people are angry they were not told about the development. Nobody knew anything about it," he said.

"I'm angry that I didn't know what's going on in my own back yard. It's a terrible eyesore. It used to be a lovely place to walk but you can't even go there now. It blocks access to the river."

A spokesman for Torfaen council said: "This is a project we are doing to improve the flood defences along the river bank in Llanyrafon.

"We have reinforced the area and have raised the level of the floodstones.

It's about 90 per cent completed but we've not been able to finish it as quickly as we'd like due to Environment Agency regulations which only allow us to work at certain times, to protect spawning fish for example.

"Also, the material we are using is being brought in from other sites. This recycling helps the environment but means we can only use it once other work has been completed.

"The project includes landscaping so it will take time for the area to grass over."