CAMPAIGNERS who failed to save Brynmawr's historic Dunlop Semtex factory say that two years after the demolition the site is still a "dusty wasteland".

Bulldozers flattened the old rubber factory - a Grade II* listed building - after a £6.3 million Welsh Development Agency grant was given to the project.

Blaenau Gwent council approved redevelopment plans for a new supermarket and retail park, along with 174 houses to be built by Persimmon Homes. So far, only 30 homes have been built.

Blaenau Gwent council says transforming the site is a seven-year project.

But campaigner Jeanne Fry-Thomas, a Brynmawr estate agent, said: "It was a unique site which would have enhanced Brynmawr and the surrounding areas if some forethought had been put into its restoration.

"With Blaenavon becoming a World Heritage Status site, and then the first purpose-developed book town in the world only five miles away from Brynmawr, this could have given visitors a chance to see something else that is unique.

"But the site is now a dusty wasteland."

The Dunlop Semtex factory was regarded by many experts as a masterpiece, with its domed roofs designed by world-famous Danish engineer Ove Arup.

Built as an ambitious industrial experiment to rebuild the shattered post-war Valleys economy - mixing manufacture with welfare facilties - the factory failed, and the building became an asbestos-contaminated ruin.

Ms Fry-Thomas said the National Assembly should have kept the building as a piece of Welsh heritage.

"If it had been in Newport or Cardiff, it would have been a different story," she added.

Campaigner Andrea Durban, from Brynmawr, said: "We feel very sad to see it as it is now after so many promises were made of plans that would come to fruition. But I don't think they ever will."

But Blaenau Gwent council leader John Hopkins, who is from Brynmawr, said: "In two years the site has been cleared and houses have already been built in place.

"I think the people who make such comments are not real locals and not in tune with the feelings of the people of Brynmawr and Nantyglo. They should stop whinging."

Councillor Hopkins said negotiations are continuing to bring a supermarket to the site, and that he was "optimistic" about the talks.