Locals know how to avoid a flooded engine...
FOR those who live and work in a certain Swansea community, the sign of a storm or prolonged downpours of heavy rain will mean one thing – avoid Ynyspenllwch Road.
Located in Clydach, the road is almost guaranteed to be closed any time there is particularly bad weather. Vehicles regularly get submerged in water and have to be recovered, and people have to take a completely different route and bypass it on their way home.
Adjacent Mond Valley Golf Club also takes the brunt of it on a regular basis, often finding parts of the course under water.
People living in the area appear to have become consigned to the idea that things will not change in future, and it has become second nature to many, as councillor Paulette Smith explained.
“Many, many years ago we had a very pretty bridge going into Glais. They decided the bridge was causing flooding and decided to take it down and built what we have now in its place. It still floods,” she said.
“A couple of heavy showers cuts off the road from Clydach to Glais completely. It has always flooded and it has done as long as I can remember. I’ve seen cars in the middle of the floods regularly and people paddling out.
“It’s one of those things. People are sick of it, but at the same time I think it is one of those things people deal with. It is accepted that if the weather is bad you avoid Ynyspenllwch Road.
“I can’t see there is going to be any answer. I just don’t know. The golf course have dug trenches in the past themselves and tried their best, but it hasn’t worked.”
Flood and water operations manager for Natural Resources Wales, Tim England, however, said it was felt flooding in the area was not considered a regular occurrence.
He said: “We are aware of flooding in the area during Storms Ciara and Dennis, but these are not considered regular occurrences. Following these two events we have been in dialogue with affected businesses there.
“Having looked at the information we have, any regular flooding of the highway is likely to be from the local ordinary watercourses and/or surface water. The risk management authority for ordinary watercourse and surface water flooding is the local authority, in this case the City and County of Swansea.”
A spokesman for Swansea Council added: “We’re aware that on occasions like Storms Ciara and Dennis the high river levels on the River Tawe adversely influences smaller ordinary watercourses in the area and results in flooding, including Ynyspenllwch Road. On such occasions NRW will take action to warn and inform properties and businesses in the area.
“As with other locations around the city, the council takes robust action in advance of storms to check and clear storm drains and watercourses and advise local landowners to do the same so that water can drain away when river levels go down.”