Flood victims in Pembrokeshire need a clearer support system, says local AM Angela Burns.
Mrs Burns has highlighted the confusion faced by homeowners when they are flooded.
“It depends whether the water is coming from the river, running off the fields, up from the sewers or from blocked council drains – in each case they would need to go to someone different for help,” she said.
Mrs Burns argued at the Senedd that Wales needs a unified system with one flooding agency taking responsibility for all flooding issues.
“When the man from the Environment Agency wanders up the river at the back of the garden to see what is going on, the householder does not see why they cannot involve them in the flooding of the field opposite—a field that floods from surface water and drains,” she told the Senedd.
“There could be three agencies involved in such a case: the
Environment Agency, the local authority, and the Sustainable Drainage Board. Add sewer flooding to this and that would make four agencies.”
Mrs Burns is lobbying for the new Flood and Water Management Bill to clear up the confusion by creating a single, lead-agency approach to deliver flood risk management and danger assessment.
Mrs Burns is also calling for Technical Advice Note (TAN) 15 (the Welsh Assembly Government’s guidelines on development and flood risk) to be updated.
At the moment the Environment Agency has to be consulted before planning permission for new homes is granted by councils can ignore their advice.
“The Environment Agency is clearly stating, ‘Do not build here, this is a flood-risk area.’ However, the council and the developer intend to march on, despite that objection, and TAN 15 cannot stop them,” she said.
“People are building these houses, and the public are buying them in all innocence, because problems do not show up on legal searches, and they have to bear the brunt of the cost of the clean-up. We would like financial penalties put on some of these developments.”
