Residents had protested about the site for years

The residents, who live near the now-closed Nantygwyddon landfill site in the Rhondda, south Wales have been paid a substantial out-of-court settlement for nuisance and for some of the ill health they have suffered.

The win, which is believed to amount to several thousand pounds for many people, could open the door for hundreds more claims in Wales.

Residents living near the tip at Gelli had called for the site to be closed on health and safety grounds for more than a decade.

The site was finally shut in December 2001, after a report commissioned by the Welsh Assembly said it should never have been built.

But campaigners, who had complained of respiratory problems, stomach upsets and eye irritation, continued their legal battle.

They launched proceedings at the High Court in Cardiff.

Former managers 3C Waste Ltd have now settled the case, although a confidentiality agreement prevents them from discussing the amounts involved.

More claims could now be submitted from other families, and more than 200 people living near the Trecatti tip at Dowlais in Merthyr Tydfil who are taking similar action.

Health problems

In 2001, the author of the Welsh Assembly report into the site, David Purchon, recommended its closure, saying it was too wet and windy and too close to homes.

Mr Purchon's report also highlighted that polluted water from the site has flowed into an area covering 20,000 households.

David Purchon wrote the Welsh Assembly's report

Earlier this year, a team of public health experts from the United States said the Nantygwyddon site had created a series of health problems for local people, such as headaches, asthma attacks and nausea.

But they said it was not the cause of cancer deaths or birth defects in the south Wales valleys.

Their 50-page report said that much of the controversy about the tip was the result of poor communication by the authorities and the lack of an adequate public health assessment process.

However, in August 2001, government-backed research published in the British Medical Journal found a 1% higher risk of birth defects in babies born near landfill tips.