The Council has today launched a survey that focuses on the ways in which the Local Authority communicates flood risk information – to gain residents’ views on what works well and what could be improved upon, which is a key action within the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan.
As the Lead Local Flood Authority for the County Borough, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is responsible for the management of risk from local sources of flooding from surface water, ordinary watercourses and groundwater. It has a duty to develop, maintain, apply and monitor a strategy for managing local flood risk. The current Strategy (2024-2030) was published in 2025, with an accompanying Action Plan updated in July 2026 to cover the period 2026-2028. Both can be viewed online here.
Communicating with the public is a key element of the Council’s work within this area – to improve residents’ awareness of flood risk, to encourage households’ preparedness for flooding, to develop more flood resilient communities, and to advise and inform residents during live storm events.
Residents can now have their say on how they would want the Council to communicate all things to do with Flood Risk Management. The six-week survey opened on Monday, August 10, and will run until Monday, September 21. It is being hosted on the Council's Let's Talk engagement website.
Please note, if you would like to receive a paper copy of the survey, this can be arranged on the above link following the start of the engagement exercise.
The survey’s feedback will help officers develop a Flood Risk Management Communications Strategy, and over the next six weeks it will gather important views and experiences from residents, businesses, community groups and stakeholders. It covers how aware residents are of flood risk, how prepared they feel, and whether the information they currently receive is effective.
Once drafted, the Communications Strategy will also be consulted upon in a future public engagement exercise. Residents will be able to have their say before the final Strategy is considered by Cabinet Members in the future.
Councillor Andrew Morgan OBE, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Capital Infrastructure, said: “The Council’s Flood Risk Management Team works hard all year round to ensure local communities are best prepared for flooding and that known risks are mitigated – with these risks ever-increasing due to climate change. During July, Cabinet approved an updated, two-year Flood Action Plan that is focused on helping communities most at risk – while setting priorities for the years ahead and ensuring our goals and commitments remain realistic and deliverable.
“Our local flood risk strategy is underpinned by important investment in flood alleviation works – a programme of which is continually running, and has delivered well in excess of 100 schemes in communities since 2020. The Council continues to receive important support from Welsh Government, which has allocated more than £4 million across two of its flood alleviation funding programmes for 2026/27 – and the overall investment is even higher thanks to Council match-funding.
“An important element of our flood risk activity is communicating with the public – whether that’s helping households understand their flood risk and how best to prepare for the winter months, to providing live information and assistance during a storm. The survey launched today aims to gather views from residents and businesses, as well as relevant community groups and stakeholders, about how the Council communicates such information.
“I urge all interested residents, businesses and groups to have their say by completing the survey before September 21. All feedback will be considered when officers develop and draft a Flood Risk Management Communications Strategy – which will be consulted upon in the future, considered by Cabinet, and then adopted by the Council. The more input we get, the better officers can understand people’s expectations to feed into our Communications Strategy going forward.”
Posted on 10/08/2026