Leader of RCT reveals flood cash frustration

A COUNCIL leader has voiced his frustration that money promised by the Prime Minister to deal with flood damage in February still hasn’t arrived.

Councillor Andrew Morgan, leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council, has called for extra funding to deal with the more than £80m worth of damage caused by the floods.

Cllr Morgan said a third of all properties in Wales flooded as a result of Storm Dennis were in RCT and around 25% of all the properties flooded in the UK were in the Rhondda alone.

He said it has been 33 weeks since the storm hit and 224 days since the Prime Minister stood in the House of Commons and promised there would be extra money for Wales – but claimed that none of it has yet come to Wales for storm damage.

The damage to infrastructure in RCT caused by Storm Dennis and other storms earlier this year is said to cost just under £70m, which goes up to more than £80m when coal tips are included.

Cllr Morgan said: “Ultimately the damage to infrastructure is still estimated for RCT to be just short of £70m. That’s without the coal tips.

“With the coal tips added in this year, next year it’s around £82.5m.

“We are getting financial support from Welsh Government towards upgrading culverts.”

The council has had about £3.5m for planned schemes which are currently under way and about £3m for protecting roads which flood.

The Welsh Government also provided around £2.5m worth of emergency assistance at the time of the flooding and the Welsh Government has now asked the council how much money it is likely to need to spend this year, which the council has said is close to £7m.

Cllr Morgan said a lot of that money will be on designs getting ready to start physical works next year.

He said: “My bigger concern is next year we may be needing £20m-£30m to get a significant number of schemes under way. The Prime Minister did say twice in Parliament, he also said in the Conservative Party Welsh conference in north Wales that there would be additional funding coming to Wales and the Secretary of State for Wales has also said in meetings with me and in the Welsh Committee in Parliament that there would be additional funding.

“The concern is now they seem to be just saying, ‘Oh well, the only funding that’s going to come is that which is through the formula based on flood spending in England’.

Well that’s just normal money which would come to us anyway. That is certainly not what the commitment was after the storms, when they said they would passport through the money.

“It’s certainly not the money we want. We will need several million pounds to upgrade culverts et cetera. We need money to replace bridges.”

He pointed to work on one collapsed river wall in Mountain Ash which will probably have to be done in two or three phases over the next two years at a cost of £1.5m alone.

He said the council can’t use £1.5m out of the fund the Prime Minister has suggested, which is why they wanted additional resources.

Cllr Morgan said: “In all the meetings I’ve been in, the UK Government is suggesting they’re being supportive and they’re saying they want to provide the extra help.

“They’re saying the right things but ultimately saying the right things won’t pay for bridges, river walls or flood defences next year.

“We actually need to see the cash. I don’t know if it’s politics at play, I don’t know if it’s just simply they don’t want to give the additional funding to Welsh Government, I don’t know what it is. I’m just really disappointed.”

Local Members of the Senedd and MPs have written a joint letter with Cllr Morgan to the Prime Minister and the Treasury saying that RCT was hugely disproportionately hit.

Asked about coal tips, Cllr Morgan said: “These coal tips go back many, many years, long before devolution. But these coal tips are also in several pockets across England where there are coalfields and actually I think that just because we’ve had an issue in south Wales, I don’t think the UK Government or the Prime Minister should be sitting back on this.”

A UK Government spokesman said: “Ever since parts of Wales were hit by devastating flooding earlier this year, the UK Government has been working with the Welsh Government and local authorities to provide extra support for flood relief and protection to the communities which were so badly affected.

“Responsibility for flood defences and flood management is devolved but, while all claims need to meet certain criteria, we expect to provide funding from the UK Reserve for 2020-21.

“Based on the latest information from the Welsh Government, this would include £2.5m requested to repair the coal tip in Tylorstown, which we know is of particular concern to the local community.””

He said the UK Government is ready to act once it receives the necessary information from the Welsh Government.