Councillor David Gwyn Williams

Cyng/Cllr David Gwyn Williams

Following the recent floods that affected so many people in many parts of Dyserth, with the active input of our Chief Executive Graham Boase, I have been working closely with several DCC officers to look at how we can try and reduce the risks of such events occurring again.

The culvert under Waterfall road that caused so much flood damage to several properties (and misery and upheaval to residents) near the A547 crossroads has since been inspected at my request, and was found to be partially blocked by an accumulation of debris. Thanks to the efforts of council highways staff the culvert was jetted by one of our lorries.

However our machine wasn’t powerful enough to deal with some of the large obstructions. So on Wednesday November 15th a much larger drain-jetter on hire to DCC was brought in to clear out the culvert properly. The result being that dyed water introduced to the culvert as a flow test was seen to be reaching the river much quicker than it had been previously.

In addition to this work DCC are planning to install a new inspection chamber on the opposite side of the road to allow much better access to where the culvert joins the main drainage pipe running north towards Dyserth bends. This new access point will allow drain-jetters to clear any pipe obstructions much more efficiently in future. It is hoped this work will be done in the new year immediately prior to proposed re surfacing of the road in this area.

As regards other measures urgently being looked at, is my determination to press NRW to dredge the river Ffyddion from the waterfalls right through to Llewerllyd Farm, or possibly even further. NRW will almost certainly find several reasons why this can’t be done, but with the help of DCC officers, our MP and our AM I will be pushing them relentlessly to deepen the river, thus increasing its capacity to take storm water away from all areas of lower Dyserth.

The local action group recently founded by Jason Vernon and Tashie Berry is actively looking at anything that we as a community can do to help ourselves. But the crucial need is to retain storm water within the river, and the most efficient way of doing so, in my opinion, is to dredge the Ffyddion and thus make the riverbed itself much deeper.

I will soon be having various site meetings with relevant council officers to look at several places in Dyserth that need urgent works doing to minimise flood risk.

I will continue to press NRW and work closely with all concerned from now on to try and minimise the flood risk in all areas of Dyserth.

David.