Llanrwst home still floods despite scheme

Feb 4 2010 by Samantha Castle, North Wales Weekly News

THE council is being blamed for flood damage to a property in Llanrwst despite millions of pounds being spent on flood alleviation work in the town.

The Appleton home at Pendre was completely flooded recently when the nearby Cae Bach water culvert failed to stop water submerging the property.

According to the town council, which discussed the matter at its November meeting, the recently installed Cae Bach culvert became blocked with leaves and debris and despite numerous requests to Conwy County Council for it to be cleared, it wasn’t until it was too late.

“Having promised to clear leaves from the grid leading to the underground water storage area the next day, they didn’t,” said a town council spokeswoman. “Then on November 18 we saw how the grid blocking the access to the underground chamber overflowed.

“This led to a flood in Cae Bach, an embankment collapsing around the dam and the Appletons’ cellar flooded.”

The flood water rose to such an extent that the electric pumps the Appletons were using burnt out due to the sheer volume of water.

Phillip Appleton explained: “It all happened so fast, the water came streaming into our house at around 6am, it was dark and there wasn’t much we could do to stop it.

“Everything in our cellar was damaged and it took us weeks to clear up the mess. If the grid was cleared by Conwy’s environment department when they were first asked this would not have happened. This scheme was supposed to make it better for us, but there are no flood warnings, nothing alerting us to the danger.”

The town council says it has written several letters to Conwy inviting them to try and prevent further flooding.

“The solution is simple,” added the town council spokeswoman. “The success of the flood prevention scheme depends on the cleanliness and upkeep of the river and water culvert grids.”

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We provide flood warnings where it’s technically feasible. Across Wales we have this capability in place for large rivers such as the Conwy, but not small streams.

“These streams have very small catchment areas and react quickly to rainfall. It’s not technically possible to provide a flood warning service for such small streams.”

A spokeswoman for Conwy council said it was planning more work to help the Appletons.