A LOCAL authority has defended its actions after an MS accused the council of conducting a "chaotic response" during Friday's floods.

Janet Finch-Saunders, Aberconwy MS, has penned a letter to cllr Charlie McCoubrey, Leader, Conwy County Borough Council, following widespread flooding in Llandudno on October 20 caused by Storm Babet. 

Some residents resorted to trying to protect their homes by locking themselves in and placing towels behind the doors. Others were evacuated and some were trapped in their homes with no means of a safe escape. Areas hit hard included Liddell Park, the Oval and the Tre Creuddyn estate.

Ms Finch-Saunders has accused the council of a lack of preparedness; a lack of a united planned response and feels there is a need for a flood risk management plan for Llandudno.

She said: "What I witnessed first-hand was complete chaos. Even I couldn’t get through to Conwy Council, spoke to a firefighter who was unsure as to where best to be, and was informed by North Wales Police that there was no plan to manage an incident like this in Llandudno.

“Many of us remember the 1993 flood.  We trusted that lessons were learnt so to save the town from such devastation again.  Clearly, public bodies had taken their eye off the ball, and now need to put a flood management plan in place, and communicate that to local residents.

“Everyone in Llandudno should be told what the strategy is should there be a similar flood again.”

Ms Finch-Saunders said that residents many residents received mixed messages relating to sandbags; The council adopted a new sandbag policy in July 2017. The council will not give out sandbags to private properties before a flood event, give out sandbags to commercial properties at any time before, during or after a flood event, allow residents to collect sandbags from council depots. 

Cllr McCoubrey said: "As news reports from across the UK showed, the conditions during Storm Babet were extreme.

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"Emergency Service and Local Authority partners across North Wales met regularly and worked closely throughout the day to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the weather conditions. All of our adverse incident plans are available to all partner agencies.

"Teams from our Environment, Roads and Facilities and Housing Services were out across the county throughout Friday and overnight into Saturday, with further resources mobilised from first light on Saturday, alongside contractors providing additional support.

"Our teams are continuing the clean-up effort and are carrying out inspections to fully assess the scale of the impact on infrastructure.”