MSs visit flood plagued street for second time in six months

Emily Price

Two Senedd Members have returned to a street plagued by flooding and erosion for the second time in six months.

In August last year Nation.Cymru reported that residents of Brookside Close in Caerphilly were living in misery due to the local stream – Nant y Aber – continually breaching its banks.

The stream was previously named the ‘Black Brook’ due to the water being used in the processes of mining.

It has since recovered to be a healthy water course run off – but debris from recent building developments have caused the water to darken again.

Due to rising water levels the road underneath Brookside Close has eroded causing flooding.

Flooding

Plaid Cymru MSs Peredur Owen Griffiths and Delyth Jewell – who represent the South Wales East region – first visited the street in the summer.

The pair revisited the site last week following heavy winter rain which saw a torrent causing some of the land to fall into the water.

Emergency remedial work has been undertaken to prevent the street losing more ground.

On both occasions the MSs were accompanied by Plaid Cymru councillor Steve Skivens who represents the ward.

Incidents

Mr Griffiths said: “It is unfortunate that residents of Brookside Close have endured yet more disruption due to major erosion of the stream banking.

“We need all agencies to be working together to prevent these kind of incidents happening time and time again.

“There is a real need to undertake more preventative action because these incidents are happening with greater frequency.”

Ms Jewell said: “The climate crisis means that we are going to be seeing more and more extreme weather. What was once abnormal in terms of levels of rainfall or regularity of storms, is now becoming typical.

“We must prepare better for what is coming and there needs to be more investment in our resilience to cope with greater levels of water flowing in our rivers, our streams and our drainage network.”

Pollution

Kate Rodgers, Environment Team Leader for Natural Resources Wales said: “We received a report of a potential pollution incident impacting the Nant Yr Aber near Brookside Close in Caerphilly on 10 January 2024 and our officers swiftly attended the site to carry out an investigation.

“Our officers found that the recent heavy rain had caused part of the embankment to collapse and the emergency works being undertaken to fix the banks had let to a silt pollution occurring. No fish have currently been found in distress.

“We are working closely with the Local Authority and their contractors to enable repairs to be carried out to the river bank, whilst ensuring that appropriate pollution prevention measures are incorporated to avoid any reoccurrence of the pollution.

“We will carry out any appropriate enforcement action in line with our enforcement policy. Thank you to everyone who reported this to us.”

A Caerphilly Council spokesperson said: “CCBC officers have been working with residents whose land is affected by erosion from the stream which supports the highway. Works are currently ongoing on site, implementing additional erosion control measures.”