The Council’s revised Local Flood Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan has now been published, following approval from Welsh Government. While Main river flood risk is the responsibility for Natural Resources Wales to manage, RCT Council is responsible for local sources of flooding which includes surface water, ordinary watercourses and groundwater. Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water is responsible for managing sewer flooding.
The Strategy and Action plan sets out the Council’s over-arching approach to managing local flood risk, and presents its objectives, measures and actions for managing the risk of flooding from local sources in our communities.
Residents can now view the revised six-year strategy on the Council website, after it was published on February 19, 2025. It is being hosted on the existing Local Flood Risk Management Strategy webpage. The strategy was approved by the Council’s Cabinet Members last year, and has since received Ministerial support. The strategy will be in place for six years from the date of publication, while the flood action plan will be reviewed and updated every two years to reflect its continued delivery against its measures and objectives.
Under the Flood and Water Management Act (2010), the Council has been established as the Lead Local Flood Authority for the Rhondda Cynon Taf area, and is therefore required to develop, maintain, apply, and monitor a strategy for local flood risk management. This responsibility applies to local sources of flooding – surface water, ordinary watercourses and groundwater.
It is important to note that managing the risk from other sources of flooding in Rhondda Cynon Taf does not fall under the responsibility of the Council. Main river flood risk is the responsibility for Natural Resources Wales to manage, while Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water is responsible for managing sewer flooding.
This is the Council’s second Local Strategy and aligns with the National Strategy for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management in Wales. The Council first published a Local Strategy in 2013, which was followed by a Flood Risk Management Plan in 2015. The newly-published revised Local Flood Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan integrates both documents, with the aim of communicating local flood risk in a simpler, more effective way.
Residents and key stakeholders were consulted on the revised strategy on two occasions from December 2022 to January 2023, and again from August to October 2023, which helped shape and inform the final document?
Councillor Andrew Morgan OBE, Leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council and Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Investment, said: “Welsh Government’s national strategy for flood risk management identifies that 245,000 properties in Wales are at risk of flooding and, due to climate change, we can expect even more frequent and intense rainfall to increase those risks even further. Storm Dennis in 2020 and Storm Bert in 2024 have emphasised that severe weather events are becoming more common, as well as our need to reinforce the Council’s strategic priorities in relation to flood risk, including improving resilience across our Rhondda Cynon Taf communities.
“The revised Local Flood Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan – which has now been published and covers the next six-year period – sets out how flooding will be managed across the County Borough. It is consistent with the objectives, measures, and related policies and legislation set out nationally, and aims to build upon the lessons learned from our first strategy in 2013.
“Among its key goals is improving the communication of flood risk to raise awareness, and consequently to ensure everyone is more prepared and resilient to the impacts of flooding within our communities. The document also ensures we’ll focus on sustainability in our approach and solutions, to help address the risks associated with climate change – for example, through sustainable drainage solutions and natural flood management methods.
“The revised strategy also promotes a risk-based approach to prioritise our flood risk management, and to continue to invest significantly to reduce the number of people living in high flood areas. Storm Bert in November 2024 showed that the vast majority of improvements we’ve made to local assets since Storm Dennis were effective in protecting our communities. However, there is still much more to be done, and we’re committed to further expanding our investment programme, using Council and external funding opportunities.
“In recent years, we’ve established robust procedures for when we know heavy rainfall is coming – centred around proactively checking and clearing our assets. We’ve also installed improved methods of monitoring our assets in weather events, and we will always make sure all available resources are ready to respond on the ground.
“I’d urge all interested residents to find out more by accessing the newly-published Local Flood Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan, which is a publicly-available document that is included on the Council website.”
In addition, Cabinet Members have considered a Storm Bert Overview Report at their meeting on February 19, which provides an overview of the storm event in November 2024 and sets out the programme of work in the months ahead to deliver Section 19 reports for flooding that occurred in specific communities.
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