Many areas throughout the Vale of Glamorgan are still in the process of recovering from the most recent seasonal storm Jorge. The latest storm hit over the weekend causing misery to hundreds of residents and many more in other parts of Wales.
The Vale Council advised residents on social media that if they needed sandbags they would need to phone the Contact One Vale to arrange a collection, but this was contradicting information given to councillors on the day.
When residents turned up to Court Road Depot in Barry they were told the Council had ran out of sandbags and they were awaiting for a delivery leaving residents to defend for themselves.
Cllr Vincent Driscoll Conservative Councillor for Dinas Powys has expressed his gratitude to the emergency services for assisting residents in the Vale affected by the floods but states that more investment and better planning is needed by Labour led Vale Council and the Labour Welsh Government.
Cllr Driscoll said “I was amazed by the lack of planning from the Vale Council on Friday when the storm was coming in, it wasn’t until 2.30pm that communication from the Council started to advise the public what to do but it was wrong information to what we were told.
“I turned up to Court Road Depot; there were no sandbags there. I think the Council and Welsh Government need too more to investing and have a better flood risk strategy, they had plenty of warning that the storm was impending.”
Cllr Leighton Rowlands Conservative Councillor for Dyfan also commented saying “there was a lack of action and poor planning by the Vale Council”.
Cllr Rowlands said “there wasn’t a dedicated number for residents to phone the Council for flood related issues outside opening hrs, and the Vale Council did not update residents on social media on road closures and school closures over the weekend until I raised it on Sunday afternoon, nobody knew what was going on.
Both councillors have said “that a review of the flood risk strategy of the Vale needs to happen and better planning in place as soon as the warning by the met office has been issued.”
“The Welsh Government needs to support families and businesses to overcome this terrible event by making sure funding is available to councils, emergency services and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to get through the initial stages of the clean-up operation.”