Woman with £70,000 bill from flood damage claims little is being done to fix problem
Video report from ITV Wales reporter Joanne Gallacher
A woman whose home gets cut off by flood water at least twice a year has raised concerns about a cross-border scheme to protect homes along the River Severn.
Leigh O'Connor claims flood damage has caused £70,000 worth of damage to her home since she moved in 17 years ago.
Government agencies and councils in England and Wales have had £10million to make improvements and they say change is on the way, but Leigh, from Powys, says it's not making a difference.
"You know the flood is coming," the Llandrinio resident, whose home backs onto the River Severn, said. "It's not like a flash flood. You know it's on its way so you just have to have a plan.
"The first thing obviously is the animals, you want the animals to be safe and then you start lifting as much as you can up and out of the water."
Rising floodwater is nothing new for Leigh, who also serves as a community councillor. Just last Christmas, friends and neighbours had to rescue sheep from the River Severn but she fears the situation is getting worse.
"I've come to the realisation that nobody is going to come and rescue me," she said. "Nobody is going to come and do anything for me."
To try and improve the situation for properties along the River Severn, the UK Government has invested £10m into a group called the Severn Valley Management Scheme. The organisation works with local authorities including Powys and Shropshire councils, and the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales.
It is trying to find a solution to the problems on both sides of the English and Welsh border but residents like Leigh argue there has been little progress.
"There has been a lot of talking but very little action," Leigh added. "There are too many agencies involved. There are too many players and only part of an issue will belong to one player, the other part will belong to another organisation and there's this constant conflict."
It is hoped that when the scheme is complete it will reduce the risk of flooding to around 3,000 homes and businesses. They are looking at storing water on land upstream and planting more trees.
Powys councillor Lucy Roberts said a public consultation will begin shortly, telling ITV Wales: "The local authority is now working with the Severn Valley Water Management Scheme and they'll be looking at ways to reduce the flooding, probably mostly higher up the catchment than here so they're looking at land management changes and possibly holding back the water but also looking at planting trees, changing the cropping so the soil holds more water."
Any improvements made should help residents in Llandrinio, but Cllr Roberts said the bigger issue is the Clywedog reservoir, which is 41 miles away and has a surface area of 230 football pitches.
"They have big concerns about the management of the Clywedog reservoir and that's been a bone of contention for some time because some people say it was built for drinking water and others flood prevention," Cllr Roberts said.
"Obviously the water companies want as much water in there as possible but the residents would like to see the levels much lower in the winter so the reservoir can help to hold back the water."
Reservoir safety in Wales is managed by Natural Resources Wales, with the release of water from Clywedog and Vyrnwy reservoirs determined by the Environment Agency, in consultation with Natural Resources Wales.
Head of mid Wales operations Gavin Brown said: "We are working with the Environment Agency, Powys County Council and Shropshire Council towards a strategic approach for improved cross-border working and to develop a programme of catchment-wide interventions supporting water management within the Severn catchment.
“We also work closely with [reservoir owners] Hafren Dyfrdwy and the Environment Agency as part of our partnership approach to monitor and manage the River Severn and its catchments. This includes ensuring releases from the Clywedog and Vyrnwy Reservoirs are managed within the limits of the current operation rules and working with them to look at ways of managing the release of water in the future."
He said climate change means the challenges of managing water will increase, requiring a number of measures to manage the flood risk.
"This means making big decisions about where development is allowed, and making properties more resilient to flood water. We’ll also need to be more innovative and look at harnessing nature-based solutions to flooding and work more effectively with landowners, and taking catchment-scale approaches to make space for the huge quantities of water we are seeing during floods.
"While we will never be able to stop all flooding, NRW is committed to working with the Environment Agency, Local Authorities, water companies and with communities along the River Severn as part of a collective effort to manage the risk of flooding and build resilience for the future for those communities at the greatest risk."
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