This is a really complicated area of law. So, sometimes, the river course is owned by someone, so sometimes the whole river course is owned by it. It's a fact of common law, though, that the edges of the river are owned by the properties adjacent to and containing the watercourse, unless there is an ability to show that the whole of the watercourse is owned by someone. So, it rather depends on how those ownerships pan out and what the infrastructure looks like above them. So, we have flood protection risks for properties and for infrastructure, but not unfortunately for gardens and for others types of land. So, I'm afraid it's a more complex question than that. I'd be happy to explore with the Member exactly what we're looking at.

Unfortunately, this is a consequence of the climate change emergency that we're all looking at. We're all experiencing greater amounts of rainfall, higher winds, really big problems with storms. So, again, my sympathies go out to the people who are suffering this. Our current system of flood protection extends, as I say, to flooding on properties and infrastructure of the sort, but not to the kind of erosion that Hefin David's constituencies are experiencing. I'd be very happy to explore further with you what can be done in certain circumstances, but I'm afraid it's very dependent on ownership patterns and other issues around the area.FootnoteLink