Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:01 pm on 24 June 2020.
Thank you, Dawn Bowden, and there's certainly lots of scope, and I know Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council are procuring consultants to develop five schemes, identified as highest risk flood defences, but they've also completed the refurbishment of a collapsed culvert known to have flooded 10 properties in the Merthyr Vale area. So, it's really good to see that sort of proactive work from the council and they've also engaged with consultants to commence development work for capital works where 170 properties were flooded during storm Dennis. But I absolutely agree with you, the flooding we saw last week was absolutely heartbreaking, and particularly in an area like Pentre, which I know is not in your constituency, but it suffered flooding, and I know there are houses in your constituency that have had multiple flooding as well. So, it's really important that we continue to get the schemes, because we have the capital available for those schemes, and I'm now funding the sort of preparatory work 100 per cent, because I think local authorities told us that could be a barrier, so we're funding all that preparatory work 100 per cent now, so please do encourage the local authority to come forward. I don't think we had any bids from Merthyr in relation to the financial assistance we offered from the flood risk management programme, but I'm still open to consider such bids.