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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the meetings held on the 5th March 2026 and 25th March 2026 as an accurate record.
RESOLVED: • To consider and scrutinise the content of this report together with the ‘Two-Year Progress Review of the Council’s 2024-2026 Flood Action Plan’ provided in Appendix 1; and, • To provide comment to help inform the drafting and refinement of the updated 2026-2028 Flood Action Plan.
The Chair welcomed Members and Officers to the first meeting of the 2026-27 Municipal Year. The Chair also welcomed new Committee Members Councillor S Hickman and Councillor D Williams to the committee and thanked Councillors A Roberts and R Yeo for all their hard work and dedication during the previous Municipal Year.
The Members Researcher and Scrutiny Officer referenced the research facilities that were available to Members within the Council Business Unit. Members were advised that if they have any specific queries to email them to the Council’s scrutiny team who would accommodate their requests.
In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct, there were no declarations of interest peertaining to the agenda.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the meetings held on the 5th March 2026 and 25th March 2026 as an accurate record.
It was RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the meetings held on the 5th March 2026 and 25th March 2026 as an accurate record.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: • To consider and scrutinise the content of this report together with the ‘Two-Year Progress Review of the Council’s 2024-2026 Flood Action Plan’ provided in Appendix 1; and, • To provide comment to help inform the drafting and refinement of the updated 2026-2028 Flood Action Plan.
With the aid of a Power Point Presentation, The Service Director Highways and Engineering and the Flood and Water Risk Manager provided Members with the two year progress report on the Council’s 2024-26 Local Flood Risk Management Strategy Flood Action Plan. Members were advised that the report will afford Members with the opportunity to consider and scrutinise the progress made in delivering the actions set out in the Council’s Local Flood Risk Management Strategy Flood Action Plan for the 2024-26 period. With the aid of a Power Point presentation, Officers set out: · How the Flood Action Plan is structured; · How progress against actions are measured and reported; · The key progress achieved during 2024-26 period; · The main challenges that have influenced delivery; and · The proposed updates and priority areas for the updated 2026-28 Action Plan to focus upon. Members were reminded that Members are being asked to provide comment to help inform the drafting and refinement of the updated 2026-2028 Flood Action Plan, which will be presented to Cabinet in July 2026. Following the presentation, Members had the opportunity to ask questions. Members praised the report and the hard work of the Flood Risk Management team. A Member queried what the timeframe is for the funding to be obtained. The Member raised a query regarding staffing and asked how wide are the team going out to recruit staff, is it within Wales or does it go wider out to the UK. The Member also queried why the external funding had stopped and what steps were being taken to resolve this. The Flood & Water Risk Manager explained to Members that the main part of the report talks about a wide range of funding from Welsh Government in terms of Capital Increasing and as part of that there’s a need to deliver quicker on construction phases which see real benefits to communities and that a number of projects need time to deliver and embed. In terms of recruitment, the Officer advised that the team have gone out to marketing companies UK wide and that unfortunately there was a limited range of experience coming through. The Officer reassured Members that the Council’s Apprenticeship and Graduate Scheme has been successful and that the team is slowly starting to develop in terms of growth and experience. The Service Director Highways & Engineering informed Members that a joint initiative between the WLGA and Welsh Government are looking at internships for both Flood Risk Management and Tips The Service Director reassured Members that the team are looking further afield and that recent interns to RCT came from as far as York. The Service Director advised that the outreach initiative between the WLGA and Welsh Government is actively pulling additional resources into Wales. In terms of the withdrawal of funding, the Flood Risk & Water Manager advised that this was predominately around the ‘Resilient Roads Fund’ and that the value of the programme over the last few years has been a mixed success and that as the scheme reduced so did the funding. Another Member queried if we can learn any lessons from our response to Storm Bert in 2024. The Flood Risk & Water Manager advised that with storm events the team has to respond and later on look back at what has happened. The team is maintaining a 5 year Capital Programme and as flooding events materialise the team will take the ‘known’ risk and then take the ‘hypothetical’ risks, which is the flood maps, and this subsequently supports the team’s prioritisation process. The Chair queried what steps are being taken to do a risk assessment within RCT of housing and building infrastructure and what the Council can do to keep properties and residents safe. The Chair also queried if the Council were satisfied that liability for a flood event will only stay with the landowner if a flood event subsequently occurred downstream to other properties. The Chair sought information as to what action the Council could take against a landowner where flooding on that property may effect other properties further downstream. The Service Director Highways & Engineering advised that if the Council cannot proceed on a property because of lack of co operation from a landowner then that forms the basis of a delegated officer decision and the public interest test would be applied. The public interest test is based on the principle of how many properties and infrastructure are effected from this particular event. Discussions ensued and a Member encouraged the team to communicate the work that the team is doing with the residents of RCT. The Member also sought the team’s opinion as to whether residents in ‘at risk’ areas are now safer as a result of the team’s work under the 2024-26 Action Plan. The Flood Risk & Water Manager advised Members that in the current Action Plan there is a Communication Strategy and that the priority is to engage more with residents and make them more aware of their risk and their own responsibilities. Members were advised that this will form a part of the Flood Risk Management Communication Strategy and that this Strategy will be going out to consultation within the next few months. Members were advised that they are also monitoring the Council’s Flood Risk Website and gathering data to see if certain pages are working well or if other pages need further improvement to engage more effectively with the public. In respect of communication, the Chair noted that a recent flooding event drew a lot of criticism towards Natural Resources Wales (NRW) in terms of the timing of their communication with the public of the flooding event turning from a Amber warning to Red warning. Members sought reassurance about the Council’s relationship with NRW as well as other external agencies such as the Met Office. The Service Director Highways & Engineering reassured Members that the Council’s relationship with NRW is very good and advised Members that NRW are very keen to engage with the Council. In terms of other external agencies, the Service Director advised that relationships can be very challenging but that the situation does look positive going forward. Another Member referred back to a earlier comment from the Service Director in respect of Enforcement work increasing over the last six months. The Member queried whether this could be passed on to another team such as the Legal department or outsourced to allow the team to concentrate on its flood risk work. The Service Director advised that following Storm Dennis, it was recommended that the Flood Risk Management team needs to employ a dedicated enforcement officer, which has since been put in place. The legal paperwork and Legal notices are drafted by the legal department, however, the public interest test justification has to be drafted within the Flood Risk Management team. The Service Director reassured Members that the Flood Risk Management team works very well and very effectively with the legal team. Following discussion, Members RESOLVED: • To consider and scrutinise the content of this report together with the ‘Two-Year Progress Review of the Council’s 2024-2026 Flood Action Plan’ provided in Appendix 1; and, • To provide comment to help inform the drafting and refinement of the updated 2026-2028 Flood Action Plan.
There was no urgent business.
The Chair thanked Members and Officers for engaging in a constructive discussion and for providing Officers with clear and focused scrutiny recommendations to take forward to use in the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy 2026-28.
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