Clwyd West MS Darren Millar has criticised the length of time it has taken to deliver flood defences in Llanfairtalhaiarn and called for swifter action when flood risk issues are identified in the future.

Whilst Darren is pleased that flood defence works are currently being carried out in the village, which is situated near Abergele, he is frustrated that despite repeated reports recommending that defences were needed, the delay in starting work on them resulted in residents being repeatedly hit by flooding over a 10 year period.

Darren is determined to ensure that no other town or village suffers the same fate and has therefore called on the Welsh Government to guarantee swifter action going forward.

Speaking in today’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament in response to the Statement by the Minister for Climate Change, ‘Reducing vulnerability to flood risk and the independent review of the 2020-21 flooding’, he said:

“I have the fortune of representing the beautiful village of Llanfairtalhaiarn in Clwyd West, but, unfortunately, it is a community that has experienced flooding on five occasions since 2008. On each of those occasions, there have been reports and investigations and recommendations made, including recommendations in 2012 to upgrade the flood defences in that community.

“They're only just now implementing the second phase of those recommendations and the works are underway, but it's 10 years on, Minister, and, in that intervening period, that community has been flooded again, most recently, in February 2020.

“What action is the Welsh Government going to take to make sure that, when recommendations are made to improve defences, they're actually delivered in a timely manner, not a decade.”

In her response, the Minister, Julie James MS, said:

“I don't know why it took 10 years - I don't have enough information to be able to comment on that - but I think what I've announced today will significantly improve both the pipeline of flood programmes and the ability of the local authority to both assess the priority need and put those in place.”