Council pledges to improve response to storm emergencies

Elgan Hearn – Local democracy reporter

A Welsh council has stressed it is determined to improve its emergency response to storms following the recent flooding.

Cabinet member for a safer Powys, Liberal Democrat Cllr Richard Church gave a lengthy reply to questions posed to him on how the council responded to Storms Bert and Darragh.

The storms caused disruption and destruction across large swathes of Wales including Powys in November and December.

Challenges

Cllr Ratcliffe asked: “Can the portfolio holder update us on any lessons learned from the storm, particularly regarding challenges like power outages, mobile signal loss, and flooding?

“How do we plan to contact our most vulnerable when they have no power and no landline?”

Cllr Ratcliffe also asked whether the experiences of all councillors from their communities during these storms should be collected.

He said: “This could help improve future emergency planning and guidance for councillors and community councils, ensuring we are better equipped to support our communities.”

Drainage

Cllr Church said: “In the wake of the recent storms, the authority has already held an internal debrief chaired by the head of highways (John Forsey)  and attended by cabinet members and officers from civil contingencies, highways, corporate communications and land drainage.

“Further to that debrief, officers have also met with representatives of communities that have seen regular flooding to listen to their experiences.

“The issues identified in those meetings will form part of the authority’s submission to an all Wales debrief scheduled for late January.

“The authority is determined to learn from previous events and improve its response to emergencies.”

Cllr Church explained that the experiences of previous storms, such as Storm Dennis in February 2020 and Storm Frank going back to December 2015 have led to new schemes aimed at keeping residents and their properties safe from flooding being built.

Impact

Cllr Church said: “Prime examples are the schemes for Knighton and Crickhowell, the latter having successfully prevented significant flooding in the town every winter since 2020.”

He added that applications to fund a number of new schemes have been submitted to the Welsh Government.

Cllr Church continued: “Whilst the main impact of Storm Bert in Powys was flooding, Storm Darragh combined the threat of further flooding with the issues of wind damage and loss of trees.

“That led to road closures, damage to infrastructure, multiple localised power failures, disruptions to mains water supply and loss of communication systems.

“The immediate priority of those who responded to these challenges was the preservation of life and the protection of property, with a clear focus on providing support to those who most needed it.

“The most visible element our response were the highways teams who worked tirelessly to clear roads and make infrastructure safe.”

Vulnerable

He explained that following Storm Daragh the council opened its doors across Powys to help those who were without power and water.

Social care teams checked that vulnerable people were safe, and their welfare needs were addressed.

He added that a Local Resilience Forum working group were looking to produce a regional plan of what to do for power failures.

“Given that secure power supplies are intrinsic to every aspect of modern life, this is a major undertaking, said Cllr Church.

Cllr Church added: “We would welcome any engagement with local communities in the future as we strive to prevent emergencies from happening and lessen their impact when they do.”