Another flooding update

Latest update on flooding issued by Denbighshire County Council at 11.10am says:
Residents in parts of Ruthin have been evacuated from their homes as the threat of flooding increases.

Parts of the town have already seen flooding occur and there are potentially up to 400 properties at risk. A rest centre has been opened at Ruthin Leisure Centre.

This is in addition to the problems being experienced in St Asaph where flooding has been widespread. A rest centre has operated at the city's leisure centre since the early hours of this morning.

The flooding has also had a major effect on transport in the region.

Arriva

All services operating near normally except:

51 (Rhyl-Denbigh): not currently running south of St Asaph.

X94 (Barmouth - Wrexham): issues at Corwen preventing a through service (see below). Awaiting further information.
GHA
Ser 1/2 Ruthin - Mold
Operating as near to normal as possible but not diverting via the usual villages
Corwen area services (GHA 5/X5/village services plus Arriva X94)

No services operating by GHA. Arriva X94 unlikely to be available owing to Corwen flooding.
Ser 14 Denbigh - Mold
This was operating near normally via the main roads only but the road has now been closed and therefore cannot now operate.
Ser 62 Denbigh - Nantglyn/Llansannan
Not operating
Villages south of Ruthin (Clawdd, Betws etc into Ruthin)

Not operating
X52/X50 Rhyl - Denbigh - Ruthin - Wrexham
Service suspended between Denbigh and Rhyl. Denbigh to Wrexham operating as normally as possible but in Wrexham via A525 rather than Southsea and New Broughton
M & H Coaches
Ser 6 Denbigh Town and Llannefydd
Reported as operating normally
Ser 10 Bodfari - Tremeirchion - Rhyl
Subject to delays. Cannot serve whole route
Ser 76 (Denbigh-Llandyrnog-Ruthin-Graigfechan)

Subject to delays. Service is avoiding Gellifor and may have to divert away from other villages.
Other Services
All remaining services and those operating via revised routes subject to some delay. Note that the volume of general traffic on main roads and the number of car breakdowns adding to issues for bus services.

Latest flooding update

In its latest update on flooding problems this morning (Tuesday) Denbighshire County Council says:

Problems are now being reported in Ruthin. Properties on the Glasdir Estate on the outskirts of the town are being evacuated due to flooding.

Road closed in Denbighshire:

• A5 Corwen
• A525 St Asaph towards Rhuddlan
• The Roe and surrounding roads in St Asaph.
• A543 - Landslip on the outskirts of Denbigh.
• Off slip of the A55 at St Asaph closed (westbound)

Floods should make health board re-think shake-up says AM

An Assembly Member claims the chief executive’s complaints that floods on the A55 caused transport problems for staff and patients of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board shows it should reconsider its controversial centralisation plans.

Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid member for North Wales, points out board Mary Burrows has just written to David Sissling, director general of NHS Wales, asking his assistance with other government departments to address the A55 flood risk

This, she says, has “yet again put at risk our ability, with Welsh Ambulance Service Trust, to provide continuity of service”.

Ms Burrows adds: “The closure of the A55 in at least two sections on Thursday, 22 November 2012 isolated many communities, affected staff getting home and coming into work and required deployment of our weather contingency plan. The West became virtually isolated.

“The only other road, the A5, which was accessible many hours later, is a single road that became completely overloaded with lorries. It was extremely difficult for ambulances to get to Ysbyty Gwynedd in any reasonable time.

Mr Gruffydd comented: "I share Mary Burrows' concern about the flooding of the A55 and the knock-on effects this had on local health services, in particular the ambulance service.

“There is a need to ensure the Welsh Government continues to improve flood defences rather than reducing spending on this important work for communities across Wales.

“However, we must also recognise that the A55 is vulnerable to one-off events like the recent flooding and traffic accidents. This is another reason why we should be questioning the proposal to centralise health services and, in the case of neonatal intensive care, moving it across the border to Arrowe Park.

“By this proposal the health board is expecting patients to travel ever-greater distances along a road that it is now saying is not fit for purpose.

"I will be raising this matter with the Health Minister and the Community Health Council as part of my objection to the centralisation proposals of the health board and hope that the board will also re-consider its plans.

“We have consistently raised concerns about the proposal to move new-born babies from across the North to the Wirral and last week's flood bore out the dangers of such a reliance on transport out of the community."

Bridge disappears under covers

A llanblogger reader has sent in this picture of the bridge over the Llangollen Railway west of Berwyn Station encased in covers.

The bridge, off the A5, is under repair by the county council and the covers are in place while shot-blasting is carried out.

Flood alert on upper Dee

 

 

The Environment Agency have now declared a flood alert on the upper River Dee, from Llanuwchllyn to Llangollen, including Corwen.

The agency says: "River levels are above normal but flooding of property is not expected at the moment. 

"Lake levels at Llyn Tegid are rising and are expected to do so for the next 15 hours.

"Further rainfall is forecast over the next 12 hours and conditions are expected to deteriorate. 

"River levels at Bala and Corwen are rising and are expected to do so for the next 15 hours. In addition to the area detailed, some localised flooding problems may result from surface water."

For more information, call Floodline on 0845 988 1188, select option 1 and enter Quickdial number 192002 to get more information

Council apologises over recycling scheme snags

Denbighshire's Cabinet Lead Member for Public Realm, Councillor David Smith, has apologised to people experiencing difficulties with the roll out of the new x2 recycling and refuse collection service following a number of problems in the south of the county, which includes Llangollen.

Over the past week, Denbighshire has been changing the service to 16,000 households, including the delivery of 50,000 additional bins, but problems with the deliveries have meant that some households have not received their new bins and information on their new collection times.

Councillor Smith said: "I would like to apologise to anyone who has experienced difficulties with the new service and would like to reassure people we are doing everything we can to rectify the situation.

"We expected some teething problems, but the issues have been worse than expected. We normally pride ourselves on our recycling service, but with this latest roll-out we fully recognise there have been problems and for that we are truly sorry.

"We have had crews out over the weekend in order to clear any backlog of bins that have been missed and also to ensure that people receive their new bins. We are putting every available resource into making sure that this situation is remedied as soon as possible and we would like to thank people in advance for their patience."

For the vast majority of residents in the affected area, this week (w/c November 26) is a recycling week, so the council has asked people to place their recycling out  on the new collection day, rather than their old one.

Residents can put their old-style recycling sacks out if they don't yet have their new containers, and the council says it will collect them.

For the vast majority of residents in the affected area, next week (w/c December 3) is for residual waste (waste that can't be recycled - black bins or pink sacks) so they are asked to put their residual waste out on the new collection day.

The council says it is aware that some people who are now on wheelie bins, wish to be on sacks and vice versa.

A spokesperson added: "We would ask anyone in this situation to contact us and we will try to accommodate people's wishes where we can, but we want to concentrate on the delivery of the new equipment at the moment."

If you have not received your recepticles and/or calendar, and have not already done so, contact Customer Services on 01824 706100 (Welsh line) or 706101 (English Line).

Flooding affects the region

The Daily Post is tweeting this morning (Monday)  that there are problems in both directions on the A5 Corwen at B4401 due to flooding,

The Environment Agency website says there is a still a flood warning in place on the Lower Dee Valley from Llangollen to Chester.

The agency is advising people to keep away from flooded areas, which it says can be very dangerous.