Residents were unable to contact the council’s emergency phoneline on Bank Holiday Monday while their street was flooding.

On Monday, January 3, anyone who attempted to contact Caerphilly County Borough Council on its out of hours number was met with an answerphone message.

Blackwood town councillor George Edwards described the situation as “ludicrous” and said residents living on Cwm Gelli Villas in Blackwood deserve a formal apology from the council.

Mr Edwards added: “It is imperative that residents can get hold of somebody in an emergency. It does not matter whether it is a bank holiday – it is a 365-day-a-year service.”

County councillor Kevin Etheridge, Leader of the Independent Group, has written to the council’s Chief Executive, Christina Harrhy, demanding the council investigate the issue.

Cllr Etheridge, who represents the Blackwood ward, said: “What concerns me is that residents with an emergency were not able to contact the council.”

A spokesperson for the council said: “A fault was reported on the emergency out of hours phone line at approximately 2.30pm on bank holiday Monday, the team were made aware and the service was restored at 5pm.

“This was an isolated incident and we are working with the external provider to ensure this doesn’t happen in the future.”

The flooding

It was not the first time Cwm Gelli Villas has been flooded.

Located next to a 164-home construction site, residents were forced to spend their Christmas fighting off the flood water gushing down their street.

They also faced a clean-up job after flooding brought about by heavy rain back in October.

In March 2021, at a planning meeting which granted permission for housing to be built at Cwmgelli in Blackwood, resident David Chivers warned the development would increase the risk of flooding.

Outline planning permission to build housing on the 5.89-hectare site at Cwmgelli was approved by the after an appeal in 2015.

Blackwood ward councillor Nigel Dix said residents had a “horrendous Christmas through no fault of their own” due to the flooding.

“The development should not have been allowed to go ahead until drainage issues had been sorted”, said Cllr Dix.

Resident Terrence Watkins said water was “pouring” down the street and admitted residents are worried it could flood again.

“It was like a river over Christmas. After it was cleaned away it would come back again.”

Mr Watkins called on the council to give permission for the storm drains to be used to help alleviate the problem in the future.

But he said he felt the council had “left residents in the dark” and added: “The whole process, from planning until now, has annoyed everyone.

“It feels like the council has washed their hands with the problem.”

A Caerphilly County Borough Council spokesperson said the issue is the responsibility of developers Taylor Wimpey, but it was liaising with them to resolve the issue.

Taylor Wimpey offered sandbags to residents to help protect their homes and has since created three ‘attenuation basins’ on the site, which are able to store water and reduce the risk of flooding.

A Taylor Wimpey spokesperson said: “We received two callouts over the Christmas period and on both occasions, our site team responded within the hour. 

“To control any potential excess surface water during heavy rainfall, we have installed three large attenuation basins on site. In addition to this, there are a number of further mitigation measures including an automated pump system.

“These have been implemented under the guidance of our appointed environmental experts. We would like to take this opportunity to assure residents that this system is regularly monitored.”