3. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: Emergency Flood Summit Update

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:09 pm on 25 February 2020.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 3:09, 25 February 2020

Thank you, Andrew R.T. Davies, for those observations and questions. I don't think we can thank the emergency services, local authorities, the volunteers and third sector organisations such as NRW and Dŵr Cymru enough. I think we just need to continue to do that over the coming days and weeks.

You started your questions around the coal tips, and I think you're right, that very visual image of the water coming down in Tylorstown, that was something that, as you say, was played over and over again. The First Minister and I visited Tylorstown last Tuesday—I think it was—to see it for ourselves, and I was very pleased to see that the Rhondda Cynon Taf local authority, who, I think, have been exemplary in their dealings with residents, had gone to great lengths to ensure that they were talking to residents who were obviously concerned when that happened. This is clearly a priority around the ongoing work that needs doing in relation to the coal tips and, as you say, the First Minister met with the Secretary of State yesterday and I understand a further meeting will be convened, I think at an official level, next week. These tips are owned by a variety of organisations, and even some of them are privately owned. So, it is vital that there is that joined-up approach between the Coal Authority, NRW, and local authorities going forward.

In relation to your questions around insurance, I think that was a really good point. I heard you say that you'd listened to the lobby briefing this morning. I went to great pains to say that the representative who attended the flood summit last week from the insurance association, he said that the assessors would be out there as quick as possible. They'd, sort of, doubled up their efforts to make sure that that happened because, I think, certainly in the lobby briefing this morning, journalists were raising with me their concern that insurance companies tried not to pay out if they could, which—that wasn't the understanding that we had from the representative who was there, and that these assessors would go out. In fact, the First Minister and I were at a meeting of RCT's group that they brought together in relation to ongoing work following the floods, and there was an individual there who owned property on the Treforest industrial estate that's been particularly badly affected, and that morning his assessor had been out. So, certainly within 48 hours, the insurance assessor had been out. So, I think that we should pay tribute to those that do that.

You asked for a final figure. I'm afraid you're going to have to be very patient. We are not going to be able to give a final figure as to the entire cost of this for a long time. So, if you just think about RCT, for instance, we know there are several bridges that have been damaged, but it's not safe for divers to go down yet to see what damage is done. So, it is going to be a long process and we are not going to be able to give a final figure. So, you heard me say tens of millions, the First Minister the same, and I heard somebody say £180 million. I haven't heard that specific figure of £180 million, but I can assure you it will be tens of millions of pounds. I was in Mountain Ash with Vikki Howells last week, and just to see the debris alone on the streets that had come off the mountain, it is incredible that nobody was killed. All that is going to take a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of resources.

Around the strategy, I heard you say in your question to the First Minister that two years ago we were promised this. Well, we only closed the consultation in the autumn of last year, and the strategy will set out our strategic direction alongside revised objectives and measures for delivery over the next decade. I do think it's really benefited for that consultation and for the feedback, the workshops, the close working groups that we've had, the work we've done with our stakeholders following the responses, and I will be publishing it later this year.