Flintshire Council has cleared a blocked culvert which threatened to flood a community for the second time in two weeks.

Residents in Pontblyddyn were devastated by flooding on February 16 as water from the problematic blocked culvert erupted out of a storm drain and invaded around 15 homes.

This happened just days after a number of local people contacted Flintshire Council to warn them of the imminent danger to the homes on Wrexham Road – many of which are Grade II listed.

Despite the council sending what was described by one nearby resident as an ‘enormous tanker’ to clear the culvert, the issue threatened to happen again just eight days later.

John Atkinson, whose newly fitted kitchen was ruined by the flooding, saw the same storm drain lid preparing to give way on Monday morning (February 24).

The Leader:

He said: “The culvert that leads to the River Dee tributary at the Pontblyddyn Cricket Club was blocked one to two inches from the top of the pipe.

“Water must have gathered up beneath the road, and that’s when I saw the heavy cast iron drain lid bubbling and moving like a boiling kettle – just like it did on the day of the flooding.

“I took it to Shire Hall again, and thankfully this time they did something about it straight away.”

June Fox, who lives just yards away from the culvert, claimed: “Those culverts have never been cleaned by the council in the 30 or so years that they’ve been there."

She added: “It’s so much deeper now and there’s even a pipe that none of us knew about, but it was covered up and blocked by decades of mud and debris.

“At least the council have stood up to the issue now because they needed to do something otherwise our road would have been flooded again.”

Mr Atkinson reported the issue to Flintshire Council at around 10am on Monday, with the Streetscene team completing their work on the site shortly before 5pm.

The Leader:

Their work has revealed a pipe, which sits several inches below and to the side of the main culvert, that was completely blocked up.

Steve Jones, Chief Officer for Streetscene and Transportation, said: “Following heavy showers on Monday morning, residents of Alyn Terrace, Pontblyddyn, contacted the council to raise concerns over the potential of a culvert blocking and flooding reoccurring.

“Following an inspection of the site, work was carried to remove debris and sediment from the culvert alongside the road.

“This was a direct response to rising water levels, and not preventative works in response to flood investigations, which are on-going.”

The Leader:

Nia Robinson is another Pontblyddyn resident who saw her home badly hit by the flood water:

She said: “I’m really pleased about the work that’s been done. We were meant to go away last weekend, but we cancelled because we were nervous about leaving the house in case something similar happened.

“And it very nearly did on Monday but thank God for some vocal people who stood up for us, although it’s incredibly frustrating when it was so preventable.

“Our trust was in people who should have been making sure something like this doesn’t happen, so it’s neglectful that it did.

“We do feel much more comfortable now, and we do have some peace of mind. But this whole experience has made us reconsider where we live.”

The Leader:

Flintshire Council’s work to clear the culvert appears to have come just in time as North Wales is set to endure more torrential rain and high winds as Storm Jorge approaches the UK.

The flooding in Pontblyddyn earlier in the month was caused by water exploding up through a storm drain.