PEOPLE living near a stream in Swansea watched their gardens fill up with nearly three feet of water, just three months after serious flash-flooding in the area.
On December 18, the water flooded a property on Mumbles Road, Blackpill, and left others with submerged back gardens. Firefighters from Swansea West fire station were called out shortly after 8pm and left just under an hour later.
Residents said they believed the problem is caused during heavy rainfall when the Brockhole Stream, which flows down through the nearby Clyne Gardens, over-tops where it’s channelled through a culvert by The Woodman pub.
A large section of the pub’s car park was temporarily under water on Wednesday evening but the pub itself, protected by sandbags at the entrance, was unscathed.
Swansea Council has responsibility for the Brockhole Stream on land it owns, and it now has planning permission to re-profile the watercourse to reduce flood risk. The project will include replacing debris-catching “trash” screens, and is reliant on Welsh Government funding.
Residents have held meetings with council representatives since serious flooding on September 6 caused damage and left a section of Mumbles Road underwater. They said flooding was becoming more frequent and want action to be taken. The council said it was doing all it could to ensure grids at Brockhole Stream were regularly cleared.
For Pam Rumble, of Mumbles Road, improvements can’t come soon enough. When flooding hit on September 6 her disabled son Peter was rescued by boat from his studio at the rear of the property by Mid and West Wales Fire Service. At the time her terminally husband was in the house upstairs. He died three days later.
The floodwater didn’t get into the house, and hasn’t before or since, and Mrs Rumble said she was relieved her husband didn’t wake up when firefighters were present. “Had he woken up he would have been so distressed,” she said. “It was a terrible time.”
Nearly two feet of water entered the studio though, and three months on Mrs Rumble said she was still trying to sort out repairs with her insurance company. More floodwater affected the ground outside the studio on December 18.
“This desperately needs action,” said the 80-year-old. “It’s a great priority for all of us. It’s costing so much money and it’s not our fault. It could be ruining people’s lives.”
Mrs Rumble said she was looking into installing a flood gate at the rear of her property – a move also being considered by Ruth Riley a few doors down. Mrs Riley said she was aware her terraced house was in a flood risk area when she moved in 15 months ago and, although water hasn’t entered it, she felt “it was too much of a risk” not to have a flood gate. She reckoned her back garden was under nearly three feet of water on Wednesday evening.”It (flooding) is definitely getting worse,” she said. “Nobody seems to want to take responsibility.”
Another resident of the terraced row said floodwater came up all the way to her back door on September 6 and that Wednesday evening had again been “absolutely dreadful”. The resident, who didn’t want to be named, said she’d lived in the house for 30 years and that she couldn’t recall any flooding in the first 15 to 20 years. She added: “Who knows about the future?” The woman also said The Woodman car park used to be grass, which absorbed rainfall. “Everything is Tarmac or tiles now,” she said.
More intense periods of rainfall are expected as the climate continues to heat up. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapour.
Speaking to MPs this week at a committee inquiry about Wales’s preparedness for flooding, Jeremy Parr, Natural Resources Wales’ head of flood incident risk management, said there needed to be an “acceptance of the risk increasing in future”. He added that “sacrificial land” was required for “huge quantities of water” that would minimise the damage to society.
A spokesman for Greene King, which owns The Woodman, said: “Unfortunately, our car park became flooded yesterday following heavy rainfall. We can confirm that there is no damage to the inside of the building and all water has now subsided.
“We appreciate the inconvenience flash-flooding causes and have reported our concerns to the council who are working to a solution on this. The pub is now open for guests as usual and the car park is fully accessible again.”
The council submitted its Brockhole Stream re-profiling planning application in February 2022 having talked to Greene King representatives and held a consultation the previous November. A design and access statement submitted as part of the plans said online workshops had been held in December 2020, where consultees were “introduced or re-introduced to the scheme outlining the existing flooding from the stream, the properties at risk of flooding, the proposed solutions and the potential phasing of construction works”.
The council approved the application in March 2024, and funding to develop and design the scheme has been secured. It will consist of a series of engineering works to the stream in Clyne Gardens and along Woodman Lane, by the pub. The work will include removal of culverts, replacement of trash screens and footbridges, ground re-profiling and a replacement flood bank.
The council said it hoped to complete the design phase by next spring and that it would then look to secure funding for its construction.
A spokesman said: “In the meantime, we are doing all we can to ensure grids associated with the Brockhole Stream are cleared regularly, and it remains high priority. Our teams have continued to work around the clock during the recent storms, dealing with flooding across parts of the city as well as removal of trees which came down during the high winds associated with the storms.
“Instances of flooding at the location are a priority for the council in terms of its wider flood management work.”
Mayals councillor Chris Evans said the flooding had occurred a number of times, and urged the Welsh Government to fund the Brockhole Stream project. “The sooner it gets started the better,” he said.
