Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:14 pm on 24 June 2020.
Thank you, Mick. I think that you were the first person to alert me to the flooding last week. As I said, my sympathy goes out to everybody who was affected. You are quite right: the agencies did come together. So, the local authority, Dŵr Cymru and NRW were out there straight away. I was very grateful that everybody reacted very quickly. I know that RCT asked for pumps straight away; they got there straight away. But, it is really important that we look at the lessons learned from the February flooding. We had had some initial views. I've fed them into the new flood and coastal erosion strategy that we've launched. But I think we do need to have a look—. I am aware of your correspondence, which I've not responded to yet. I think it is really important that we look at the current assets and what more might be needed. As I mentioned in an earlier answer, we have the capital funding available. I'm ensuring that the preparatory work is fully met by Welsh Government—that the cost of it is fully met—and I'm very happy to work with every local authority and consider all the applications that come in.
I think Llyr mentioned before that we're faced with several crises at the moment, and, clearly, the climate emergency, if that tells us anything, we know that we are absolutely in the middle of that climate emergency now.