CWM Rheidol residents have said their safety concerns over Rheidol Power Station cabling work near their homes have come true after piping collapsed and rolled down a hill.

Residents have been at loggerheads with managers at the power station, which is operated by Statkraft, for months over the work which is seeing large scale drilling up a hill near their homes.

But residents have been left shocked after half a kilometre of piping came loose and rolled down the hill, hitting one resident’s garage and garden and landing on his car at around 10pm on Monday, 1 April.

James Salvona, one of the residents, said the piping had left "a hell of a mess" and looked "like black spaghetti right across the road".

A clear-up operation by Statkraft workers was underway on Tuesday, but the work led to the road being closed for much of Tuesday.

Statkraft has not responded to a request for a comment.

Drilling work was due to take place for around 56 days with residents unhappy that they were facing up to 12-hours of drilling a day, with some of the drilling taking place just metres from one of the house.

They claimed that Statkraft had failed to respond to questions over safety issues, including possible contamination of water supplies through drilling work.