Defence scheme answered
ever, two-thirds of these (25) are defined by experts as poor-quality, small and easy to replace, a danger to people or likely to die very soon due to old age and disease.
These will be replaced with 41 new trees, up to five metres tall, from a range of native and exotic species – retaining the Edwardian character of the parks for future generations to enjoy. A further 200 trees will also be planted in the wider community. But trees help to reduce flood risk, don’t they – aren’t you making matters worse? In the right numbers in the right places trees can help to reduce flood levels. However, they would make virtually no difference to water levels here.
Are there no less damaging ways of doing this? Long before a shovel was put in the ground, a huge amount of detailed technical analysis, hydrological modelling and environmental research was carried out – as we do for every flood scheme we deliver.
We looked in detail at all the different options. These included dredging Roath Lake, creating flood storage areas upstream, dredging Roath Brook, building a bypass channel, installing tidal doors and using temporary defences.
This comprehensive investigation showed clearly that, to reduce flood risk for people in 60 properties in Alma Road and Cressy Road (known as phase three of the project), the best option was to widen the stream at Roath Brook and Roath Mill Gardens so it can carry more water away from the area when floods threaten.
People feel that you’re creating a “hard-engineering” scheme. Could you not create something that’s more sympathetic to the environment? Balancing the conflicting demands of people, communities and their environment is never easy. But we firmly believe the project to reduce flood risk for people living near Roath Brook does that.
People living in the community can also be more confident that their homes and business will be better protected from the effects from flooding. Then they will have a better chance of obtaining affordable home insurance and be able to sleep a little better when heavy rain or high tides threaten.
And the end result will be that the local community will be better protected from flooding and the special Edwardian character of the parks will be kept for present and future generations to enjoy.
Are you not concerned about the effect on water voles, bats and other wildlife that live in the area? We have surveyed the area to understand what habitat and species are present and are managing the impacts of the works specifically to make sure that we don’t do any harm. Our ecological supervisor visits the site every week to make sure that the works are not damaging the environment.