What discussions has the Welsh Government had with Denbighshire County Council regarding funding for flood defences?
My officials meet regularly with Denbighshire County Council regarding funding for flood defences. All lead local flood authorities including Denbighshire are also represented on the Welsh Government’s Flood Programme Board which meets quarterly to discuss the Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCERM) Programme.
We have allocated funding to Denbighshire County Council to progress flood schemes via three funding workstreams. First, under the main FCERM Programme for 2024-25 we have made over £680k capital funding available to Denbighshire County Council. The full FCERM Programme was published on 19 March 2024 on Welsh Government’s website: Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Programme 2024 to 2025 | GOV.WALES.
Additionally, under the Coastal Risk Management Programme (CRMP) we are funding 85% of the £66 million Central Rhyl and £26 million Prestatyn schemes currently in construction. Meanwhile, the £27.8 million East Rhyl scheme was completed in 2022, and 85% Welsh Government funded. When the three schemes are complete 4,788 properties will be at reduced risk of flooding.
Finally, Denbighshire has been allocated funding to progress natural flood management (NFM) schemes. Between 2020 and 2022, Welsh Government made £997,000 available to Denbighshire through the NFM pilot scheme. More recently, we have made over £1.57m available to Denbighshire between 2023-2025 to progress five schemes under our ongoing NFM Accelerator Programme.