Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:20 pm on 17 January 2023.
Minister, over the weekend areas in Newport East saw flooding, such as Llanwern, Langstone and St Julians, which unfortunately is not an uncommon occurrence, and it has become more frequent over the last few years, with many residents and businesses contacting myself and my office. One of the issues, which I’m sure you’re familiar with, Minister, is finding out who is responsible and who is accountable for flooding when it comes to land use and land management, and very often it’s difficult for householders and businesses to achieve that. On the one hand it’s Natural Resources Wales, it’s possibly Welsh Water, possibly Network Rail, local authorities, private development, and I just wonder, Minister, whether there’s anything you’re considering in terms of bringing potential organisations with responsibilities together in those sorts of circumstances to bottom out who is responsible, because it's an ongoing situation, it’s not a one-off, and it needs to be resolved for the future.
One other matter, Minister—you mentioned the use of the natural environment, which I think is excellent and needs to be done to a greater extent. We’ve seen some attempts to manage hard surfaces in urban areas—householders' and others'—is there any more that you’re considering, so that we have fewer of those hard surfaces that allow water to immediately run off, rather than to absorb, hold and slowly release?