£8 million flood protection scheme set to advance after funding boost

Anthony Lewis, local democracy reporter

Proposals for a “huge” flood alleviation scheme could cost up to £8m and take over three years.

Responding to a question from local councillor Norman Morgan at full council on Wednesday, February 12, Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) Council leader Andrew Morgan said the Pentre Flood Alleviation Scheme would be one of the biggest since RCT Council had been set up.

The council recently received external funding of £800,000 to take the scheme forward and Cllr Andrew Morgan said the scale of it was “huge.”

He said the scheme could cost in excess of £7m or even £8m and be carried out over a number of years.

Capturing rainwater

It will be an investment in infrastructure involving the capturing of rainwater from the upper catchments of Pentre and directing it through a newly-located culvert system at ground level.

Cllr Andrew Morgan said the timeline included around 18 months of detailed design, 12 months of on site service diversions and then 24 months of phased construction, but these might overlap so it was not necessarily 44 months in total.

He said a huge amount of work had been done but this scheme was one of the council’s two major projects, with Treorchy being the other.

Pentre was one of the worst affected areas during the flooding caused by Storm Dennis almost exactly five years ago.

Watercourses

Since then, the council has surveyed ordinary watercourses and surface water drainage infrastructure, completed a business case for the upper Rhondda strategic flood risk area, done work at the Pentre Road inlet, completed an overland flow interception scheme in Pentre Road, an overflow structure next to Lewis Street and Pleasant Street, a flood routing scheme at Pentre Park, surface water overflow connection at Lewis Street with Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, and an upgrade to an overflow manhole in Volunteer Street.

It has also completed repairs to existing ordinary watercourse manholes at several locations following the identification of storm damage, carried out highway drainage repairs across Pentre, and completed structural rehabilitation works to ordinary watercourse culverts

Cllr Norman Morgan said the recent announcement that external funding had been acquired to progress the scheme in Pentre had been warmly welcomed in the community and he thanked those who had worked hard to secure the funding.

He also said that Pentre had been kept safe largely due to the investment by the council.