STORMS BILL RUNNING INTO THE MILLIONS
THE estimated cost of repairing damage caused by Storm Dennis is already in the region of tens of millions of pounds.
During questions to First Minister Mark Drakeford, he was asked if an estimated repair bill of £180m for damage caused in Rhondda Cynon Taf alone was correct. He replied that it was not an “unreasonable” sum.
But he warned it is still too early to know exactly what the total cost will be.
“It is not possible to put a precise figure on it because some of it is, literally, still underwater,” he said.
“It’s not been possible to get engineers down to look at the scale of the damage.
“The figure that Adam Price [Plaid Cymru leader] has raised in terms of RCT, it isn’t an unreasonable estimate,” the First Minister said.
The Welsh Government has made £10m available and said householders can get up to £1,000 each immediately.
Mr Drakeford said: “What the Welsh Government has done is to focus upon the immediate aftermath of the floods to make sure that we provide funding for individual householders directly affected, to pay for the clean-up costs of local authorities, to be able to begin to help businesses to get back on their feet.
“We can cover those costs from within our own budgets, by very careful management and drawing together of funds from different parts of government. But beyond the immediate impact, when local authorities have major infrastructure repairs to be carried out, then that is not going to be £10m, that’s going to be tens and tens of millions of pounds.
“My colleague, Rebecca Evans wrote to the Treasury yesterday formally setting out the fact that we will be looking to the Treasury for assistance with that bill.”
Plaid leader Mr Price has called for members of the armed forces to be drafted in to help flood-hit communities after storms Dennis and Ciara.
Adam Price asked why troops had not been sent to Wales when they had been deployed during flooding in Yorkshire during July and November last year, and earlier in February.
Mr Price raised the issue in a question to Mr Drakeford.
“Welsh men and women loyally serve in the forces and would no doubt have made a valuable contribution in serving Welsh communities during the crisis if asked to do so,” Mr Price said.
The First Minister said asking for assistance from the armed forces had been “very actively” discussed by the emergency services.
“Their decision over that weekend was not to make such a request because circumstances were so difficult and dangerous that only people that were specifically trained to be able to deal with them were thought to be safely capable of being deployed,” he said.
“That was the advice that they gave and I thought it sensible to follow their advice.”
He told Mr Price the question would be “looked at” if the assessment by the emergency services changed.
Flood defences in Monmouth were “within a centimetre” of being breached during Storm Dennis, the First Minister said.
“In many places, the gap between holding and not holding was narrow,” Mr Drakeford told the chamber.
“I don’t think that the event of that weekend was predictable.”
Pontypridd AM Mick Antoniw said nine bridges remain closed with severe damage and need inspecting.
Another 199 have been inspected and 32 still need to be inspected.
There are dozens of collapsed river walls and 43 coal tips have been inspected, he said.
Mr Drakeford said at its peak, 900 cubic metres of water were coming down the River Taff every second.
Both he, and Environment Minister Lesley Griffiths, were asked about claims that flooding in Rhondda Cynon Taf had been caused by trees being felled by Natural Resources Wales.
In a Welsh Government press conference yesterday morning, Ms Griffiths said there was an “active investigation” and there had been a removal of diseased trees.
She said 1,000 homes had been impacted by flooding and an estimated 300 businesses.
Mr Drakeford told a meeting of the full Assembly that the UK Government had recently told the Welsh Government that £200m needed to be repaid to them.
“Part of the reason why we are having to ask the UK Government for assistance is because with six weeks of this financial year left to go, the Treasury wrote to us requiring us to repay to them £100m of financial transactions capital, and £100m of conventional capital, before the end of this financial year.
“They said that they had recalculated Barnett consequentials, and that that money needed to be returned to them.
“When I say to the Prime Minister that I want money to help us with the impact of flooding here in Wales, I’m essentially asking him to hand back to us money that he took away from us in the last few weeks.”
Mrs Griffiths warning the “threat of flooding” had not yet passed.
“The number of properties that have been affected and the damage and losses caused over the last two weeks right across Wales have been absolutely devastating for the individuals and I think also for Wales as a nation,” she said.
“I came down from north to south Wales yesterday and to see the impact everywhere – it really, really hits you.
“These were very, very significant storm events, I think we have to recognise that. A month’s worth of rain fell in 24 hours.”
River levels in many places across Wales hit record or near-record levels in the wake of both Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis. The River Taff was 80cm higher than during widespread flooding in 1979.
Mrs Griffiths said flood defences had meant more than 9,000 properties were protected from flooding on the River Taff alone, with a total of 73,000 homes across Wales protected.