Maes y Ffynon Flood Alleviation Scheme

Scheme Background

According to Natural Resources Wales’s (NRW) Flood Risk Assessment Wales (FRAW) maps, the community of Aberaman, more specifically Cardiff Road and its surrounding area, is noted to be at high risk of surface water and ordinary watercourse flooding. The community of Aberaman is also identified as the 96^th most at risk community for ordinary watercourse and surface water flooding in Wales according to the Communities at Risk Register (CaRR) 2025 which was developed by NRW to provide an objective means of identifying risk and prioritising flood risk management activities at a Wales-wide, community level.

The consequences of being a high-risk flood area have been particularly evident over the past 5 years, with Storm Dennis in 2020 and Storm Bert in 2024 leading to widespread internal flooding across the community. 

Proposed Scheme Objectives

• Reduce risk to life by reducing the number of people exposed to risk of flooding of significant depth and velocity.
• Reduce community disruption by reducing the amount of residential and commercial property exposed to flood risk.
• Result in no detriment to downstream receiving River/Watercourse
• Improve community resilience to flood events and climate change, promoting sustainability and wellbeing.
• Deliver a preferred option that works with natural processes and promotes green infrastructure.
• Enhance local biodiversity and support the resilience of ecosystem services.
• Improve the resilience of flood risk assets against climate change - Promoting accessibility and low maintenance requirements.
• Reduce the impact of climate change – mitigating the extent of the projects carbon footprint.
• Improve community wellbeing through the enhancement of local amenity.

Proposed Scheme Description

The Council proposes to carry out land drainage improvement works to construct an attenuation pond within the grass land area adjacent to Maesyffynon Lane, with ancillary works to divert two unnamed ordinary watercourses into the attenuation pond. The current total estimate for the project, including design and construction, is £2,000,000.

The location of these works will take place at Maesyffynon Lane and Cardiff Road, Aberaman.

The works are intended to reduce the volume of peak flows entering the downstream culvert network during storm events through the attenuation of flow from two unnamed ordinary watercourses. These improvement works also form part of council’s Flood Action Plan 2026-2028, which has been designed to actively manage the risk of surface water and ordinary watercourse flooding to properties within RCT. The attenuation pond’s water retention will meet the Q100+ 30% (climate change) standard of protection.

Following a 30-day consultation period with the public and Natural Resources Wales as statutory consultees, held between 17^th March and 18^th April 2026, the scheme has been deemed to have low environmental impact. The authority therefore does not intend to prepare an Environmental Statement in relation to the proposed works.

Construction was started on the 13^th of July 2026 and is being undertaken by Centregreat Ltd as principal contractor. A public outreach event was held on the 19^th of August 2026 to communicate updates to the public on the scheme and it’s works now the construction phase has begun. While the majority of the works will be undertaken on RCT owned land, there may be disruption on Maesyffynon Lane at periods during the construction phase. Measures are in place to reduce disruption from noise for those in close proximity to the site.

The construction phase is expected to last until April 2027.

View the drone survey

Flood Risk Management 

Enivronmental Services,
Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council
Floor 2
Llys Cadwyn
Pontypridd
CF37 4TH

Email: FRM@rctcbc.gov.uk