Cash to target streets hit by storm flooding

MORE than £4m worth of funding has been allocated to schemes in Rhondda Cynon Taf that will alleviate the risk of flooding.

- ELLIE GOSLEY

The money, which has been allocated to the council by two Welsh Government programmes, will be used towards 26 separate projects over 2025-26.

The £4.52m will be used to improve culverts and drainage systems susceptible to flooding from ordinary watercourses, surface water and groundwater.

Reports into flooding in the county have identified areas which have been flooded due to culverts or drainage systems previously.

In February 2020, nearly 1,500 homes and businesses in Rhondda Cynon Taf were impacted by flooding during Storm Dennis. In November 2024, a further 200 properties in the country were flooded during Storm Bert.

The council has spent £100m on infrastructure alleviation works since 2020 and council leader Andrew Morgan says that while it’s clear investment succeeded in reducing flood risk, flooding in the aftermath of Storm Bert “served as a stark reminder that there’s still much more to be done.”

He added that this investment is needed to protect homes and businesses “from increasingly frequent storm events, as a result of climate change.”

A Section 19 report into flooding in RCT after 2020 identified that some areas of the county borough were flooded after drainage systems and culverts became overwhelmed.

The report said that the “unprecedented storm event led to large parts of both the Cynon and Rhondda Valleys being affected by ordinary watercourse flooding as a result of culvert networks becoming over capacitated.”