Minutes

2024/40: Bishton and Langstone Flooding, Formal Council Questions and Responses - Monday, 16th December, 2024

Items
No. Item

1.

Question to the Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Biodiversity: 2024/40 - Bishton and Langstone Flooding

Minutes:

 

 

 

 

Councillor Routley asked:

 

Leader and Cabinet member throughout Newport and indeed all of Wales, we are experiencing what people are calling biblical flooding episodes. These are not isolated 100-year events, but recurring floods happening annually and even more frequently throughout the year.

 

Throughout the ward of Bishton and Langstone, we have suffered severe damages.

 

Our rural lanes and roads are only periodically cleaned, which isn't enough. We are pleading for more intensive cleansing efforts, especially focused on the removal of all debris. This debris has been clogging our drainage systems and exacerbating the flooding.

 

Simply put, even if our highway drainage systems are in good shape, they won't function properly if the debris from our rural lanes and highways isn't promptly removed. This accumulation blocks the drains, leading to the very floods we're determined to prevent.

 

Could we implement extra services to ensure our highways and byways are cleaned and maintained to a higher standard? Doing so would significantly reduce the risk of blocked drains and assist in mitigating further flooding.

 

I understand the bigger picture of flood prevention however we desperately need your help today so we can protect our homes for tomorrow.

 

 

Councillor Forsey responded:

 

Rural lanes and roads in Langstone are cleaned periodically to remove any debris. This operation to clean the lanes and roads and to remove the debris involves significant planning and consideration in order to minimise disruption to residents as much as possible. Traffic management and lane/road closures are required. With this in mind, the current schedule aims for 3-4 visits per year with the next scheduled clean taking place by mid-December.

 

 

As is common in many other places throughout Wales, the main issues observed in these lanes comes when the level of the fields are higher than the roads. Excess surface water from heavy rainfall runs off the fields and into the rural lanes.