6. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:32 pm on 12 March 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 4:32, 12 March 2019

Diolch, Llyr Huws Gruffydd. So, we'll start with Old Colwyn, and again, you see, you're saying to Welsh Government, 'When are you going to bring these people to the table?' This is a matter for Conwy County Borough Council. They're the ones who keep coming to us, asking for money, and they're the ones who need to be talking to these partners. My officials have spoken to the local authority, they have spoken to Network Rail, they have spoken to Dŵr Cymru, but, again, this focus on Welsh Government being the enabler all the time has to change. So, those conversations are going on. I took the decision not to include this scheme for funding through this capital programme because it doesn't meet the objectives of the programme, I feel, to reduce risk to properties, and that has to be the priority—to reduce the risk to properties and business. But I do recognise the challenges that obviously important local infrastructure, like the A55, have to withstand. So, my officials are continuing to work with other parts of Government—I mentioned that my colleague Ken Skates' officials are also involved in this, from a transport point of view—and the external parties to look at how we can jointly fund these coastal defence works.

I think you're quite right about harder and softer defences. I can't give you the percentages, but I can take a very good guess that the harder defences will be much the higher priority because, unfortunately, you think of flood defence and people think of concrete. So, this is why I'm very keen to pursue these untraditional flood risk management defences. They can reduce the risk of flooding, and through the national strategy, I do want to encourage much more of the natural flood risk management methods. It could be a stand-alone scheme, it could be part of a hybrid scheme. I think it could complement engineered works. Obviously, SuDS is much more about using natural resources, and as I said in my answer to Andrew R.T. Davies, those regulations have been very much welcomed.

You mentioned the tidal lagoon, and certainly when the UK Government was looking at the Swansea bay tidal lagoon as a pilot scheme, we were obviously looking at others, and the one in north Wales had a lot of flood defence capacity and capability within it. So, certainly, it's not just about renewable energy, is it? It is about the additional benefits that it could bring.

You'll be aware of the 'Brexit and our land' consultation, and certainly, I think, under the public goods schemes, I want to see much more peat bog restoration, flood storage areas, grass buffers. I think we can manage hill slopes in a much more appropriate way. So, I think, again, the post-Brexit agricultural policy will give us opportunities there too.

I will be working very closely with my colleague Julie James, who is the Minister with responsibility for planning, around TAN 15. Obviously if we do realise that there are areas that have been allocated for housing developments that we realise are at a very high risk of being flooded, that's something that we will need to look at, as to how that land is then treated.