Good afternoon fellow Councillors,
Sorry I've taken a while to come back to you with an update about the flooding, the lack of which has been mentioned in certains emails to Councillors so thought I would send this email as an update before tomorrow's meeting and to respond to some allegations which have apparently been made against me. Firstly though I would like to thank Kyle Thomas, who is our youngest and one of our newest Councillors, who was present throughout the night on Tuesday and the following day, helping me with the rescue efforts as far as we could and showing his total dedication to helping the people of St David's Avenue and Westover Park. Also thanks to Rhydian Davies for helping and trying to clear the drains on Wednesday. Their help was invaluable.
I believe there have been some allegations made against me for not having a risk assessment prior to opening the Town Hall to take in the residents being evacuated from St David's Avenue by boat. For your information I was asked by the officer in charge of the Fire Brigade evacuation team to open the Town Hall as soon as possible. As you know most of the residents are elderly and vulnerable and they were in a very frightening situation where many of them were wet, in their night clothes with nothing on their feet. There were also several young children who were frightened and cold. At that moment I'm afraid the last thing on my mind was a risk assessment and I make no apologies for that. I received a text at 1.30 a.m. to say that the Memorial Hall was open for the emergency, asking me why two venues were open as they had hot water, tea and coffee available in the Memorial Hall. At the time of receiving this text I was too busy to reply and haven't felt the need to respond since. Here are some pointers for you to help understand the reasons why the Town Hall was used, rather than the Memorial Hall and according to the Fire Brigade personnel present it was the best option in the situation we were in.
- The close proximity of the Town Hall to St David's Avenue
- Helen and Sophie from the Town Hall Committee were in the Hall ready to help, plus other people who came to offer their assistance.
- The street lights in Market Street aren't working and it would have been dangerous to allow these residents to walk to the Memorial Hall after getting out of the evacuation boat when some of them were struggling just to get to the Town Hall.
- The Town Hall has a food bank on the premises, which was opened and was able to supply emergency refreshments during the night. The Co- op, Castell Howell and Colin Harries donated food to the Town Hall later in the morning. Grateful thanks to them. The Rugby Club also made food for any residents who wanted it.
By about 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday all the residents of St David's Avenue had either gone to stay with relatives, if they were able to, to the Ivy Bush in Carmarthen or to appropriate care homes. We must sympathise with everyone from St David's Avenue, some who have lost all their possessions and the upset they feel must be heartbreaking for them.
As you know I started delivering sandbags on Tuesday evening at about 5 p.m. and was out all night, until 1p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, helping with the evacuation of St David's Avenue by boat to the Town Hall, alerting people in West Street that their homes were likely to flood etc. In view of the risk of flooding in Whitland, I started collecing sandbags last summer because the last time sandbags were needed by Whitland residents whose properties were flooding, Carmarthenshire County Council only delivered 4 sandbags! By Tuesday I had approximately 35 sandbags in the Council's container. I was phoned initally by residents of Velfrey Road at about 5 p.m. whose properties are, unfortunately, some of the first to be at risk of flooding. As I have delivered sandbags to these residents several times over the years, they ring me as soon as they think their homes are at risk. I went straight to the container, collected the sandbags and started delivering in Velfrey Road. While I was there several people stopped me in and around Velfrey Road, Trevaughan Lodge and Station Road desperately looking for sandbags so I gave them to anyone who asked for them. Unfortunately because of the extent of the flooding, 35 sandbags didn't go very far. It has been implied that I only delivered sandbags to my "friends". I delivered the sandbags to anyone who asked and who was in need and fearful of their homes flooding. I did not supply sandbag to my "friends" and I find that accusation partiularly hurtful. In the meantime I have been asked if I delivered sandbags to the Hywel Dda Centre because some residents of St Mary Street stated that there were several sandbags around Hywel Dda while they were told that there weren't any sandbags available for their homes. Unfortunately I ran out of sandbags before getting into Whitland from Velfrey Road so the sandbags I had are not the ones outside Hywel Dda.
I also have been informed that some people have been asked where I was during the evacuation effort. I would like to advise them that they could have found me waist deep in water outside Westover or at St David's Avenue during the evacuation and afterwards, if they had cared to assist!
With regard to Westover Park, I attended there on Tuesday evening to check on their welfare and was nearly waist deep in water and was holding onto David Harries' railing to keep afloat. Most of the residents wanted to stay in their properties but I know that some were in the Town Hall later. On Thursday I visited Westover on several occasions to see if there was anything I could do to help them as their electricity was still off. In the meantime I found the contact number of a company which rents out generators. Some of the residents I spoke to were concerned about the drainage and the problems which may have been caused by the river too (fallen trees in the river etc). I had spoken to a representative of the National Rivers Authority earlier by the River Taf at St. Mary's and asked him if he could check the drains in Westover, which he did. I was later told by a resident that he had spoken to them. While I was there the residents I spoke to said that they expected the electricity back on at about 3.30 p.m., which it did. It's been stated that the residents of Westover felt forgotten about. However I believe I did as much as I could at the time to assist them, during and after the floods. By 1 p.m. on Wedesday I had been up for about 32 hours, having only been home twice between 5 p.m. and 1 p.m. the following day, to change out of wet clothes, so I went home to have some sleep. I went back to the Town Hall at 4 p.m. and everyone had, fortunately, been re-housed. When I got up on Thursday morning I immediately went down to Whitland again and Westover in particular to see if anyone else needed any further help.
From emails on Thursday morning it was again suggested that the Memorial Hall should be opened to help the residents of Westover, to give them warm food etc which was a kind and generous offer. As it turned out the electricity was restored to Westover so the offer of help wasn't required in the end. It was mentioned that the Town Hall couldn't be used then because it was descibred as "wet and filthy". The stairs may have been wet because the emergency services were going up and down the stairs to deliver essential items and medication to the residents who were there. However I don't think it could be described as "filthy". After everyone left the Town Hall on Wednesday afternoon, the kitchen was cleaned. The toilets were professionally cleaned on Thursday morning. There were a few things left on the table in the room downstairs (which has previously been used as the Mayor's Parlour), which was used by the residents who couldn't climb the stairs because as you know the lift isn't working at the moment. Helen and Sophie, having been up all night and in attendance at the Town Hall until 5 p.m. on Wednesday and working on Thursday themselves, said that they would be cleaning the Town Hall on Friday, as there was a function there last night. Sophie rang me to say that they had cleaned and asked if I would be able to collect a few bags of rubbish, which I have and which I have taken to the recycling. I would like to stress that Helen and Sophie are volunteers and don't receive an form of payment for all their hard work at the Town Hall and I have thanked them on behalf of the Council for all their efforts, not just now but at all times. In the meantine, bearing in mind that in the region of 48 people from St David's Avenue, some from Westover, the peoope who attended from Delta, the Red Cross, Carmarthenshire County Council Housing Department and all the rescue services had been given hot drinks and food for at least 12 hours, Helen, Sophie and the volunteers in the Town Hall did an amazing job. Helen said that the representative from the Red Cross had told her that if they had been in charge of the evacuation there was nothing else they would have done differently to what had been done in Whitland on the night and that's a massive compliment to everyone involved.
After I left Westover on Thursday afternoon I saw one of the residents of St David's Avenue who has gone to stay with relatives and was told about the problems they have been facing with the Council and getting access to their belongings, stating that they weren't allow to get any of their personal effects and private papers from their properties. I contacted our MP, Mrs. Ann Davies, and arranged a Teams meeting for Friday morning. Two of the residents of St David's Avenue came to my house for the meeting so that they could put their point accross to Mrs Davies and an employee of Carmarthenshire County Council. Cllr Allen was also informed of the meeting and attended. In the meantime the residents who were in my house waiting for the meeting had been told that they were going to be allowed into their properties at various times during the day to collect as many belongings as they could in 10 minutes. Unfortunately that's not much time for them to pack all their requirements but it's better than nothing. After the emotional meeting with our MP, the residents left to collect their things and hopefully they now have everything they need for the time being and will, in future, be given full information about their properties and when they will be able to move back in, which I hope will be very soon.
Hopefully this level of flooding will not happen again but I would like us to discuss this matter further in our next meeting.
Thanks
Len
