Praise for staff who worked ‘tirelessly’ responding to recent storm flooding

Workers who cleared fallen trees, unblocked culverts and rescued flooded-out residents during recent storms have won praise from Caerphilly councillors.

Storm Bert and Storm Darragh brought “atrocious” weather conditions to the county borough in late November and early December, respectively.

Council leader Sean Morgan said such storms present significant challenges to our services as rivers, culverts and drainage infrastructure struggle to cope with a huge volume of rainfall”.

The local authority received 1,203 out-of-hours calls for support, and the response to 106 separate incidents involved hundreds of staff, councillors heard.

Workers also cleared 130 fallen trees and issued 1,250 sandbags to residents and businesses.

Inspectors visited 104 road bridges across the county borough and crews cleared more than 2,000 culverts and drainage inlets.

Cllr Morgan said the storms brought “particularly bad problems” to Risca, Ystrad Mynach, Llanbradach, New Tredegar and Blackwood. 

“Many staff worked tirelessly to support those whose homes and businesses were impacted by the flooding,” he added.

“This was very much a ‘Team Caerphilly’ effort involving staff from many service areas, and it’s important to recognise the involvement of all those concerned.

“Whilst I hope that the second half of this winter is kinder to us, it’s inevitable that we will be dealing with more regular and more significant weather caused by climate change. And I would like to thank our frontline staff for the effectiveness of their response to these events.”

Councillors from all party groups offered their own messages of thanks and appreciation to the frontline and behind-the-scenes staff who attended emergencies and coordinated the response.

Cllr Lindsay Whittle, who leads the Plaid group, commended their “amazing efforts”.

“When we’re all running away from those dangerous conditions, these people are running towards those dangerous conditions,” he added.

The meeting also heard some suggestions for practical improvements in the event of similar incidents.

Several councillors asked for the council to clear leaves from drains more regularly.

Another suggestion was for the council to install “sand bays” – similar to grit bins – in communities so residents at risk of their homes flooding could fill up their own sandbags.