RESIDENTS at Woodham Park in Barry have spoken out about flooding issues in the area.

At least nine properties in the street have been flooded in the past and concerned residents believe not enough is being done to prevent history from repeating itself.

The properties themselves are next to Buttrill’s playing fields, which, as the weather gets wetter, get waterlogged.

Barry and District News spoke to Andrea McCarthy 58, one of the homeowners whose property has been flooded twice in the past.

She said: “There’s nine of us that were flooded in total. Since I’ve been there, I’ve been flooded twice - the first was on October 31, 1998, and the second was July 21, 2007.

“Since then, we’ve had eight or nine near misses with the weather.”

According to Andrea the Vale Council’s preventative measures are not effective enough. 

She said: “What they did, was build a bank up (which they said was a temporary solution) behind our houses with a big ditch and then along the back on the nine houses and around the corner onto the playing fields.

“They dug out an overflow so once it would reach a certain height the rainwater would pass through there-but they told us it was only a temporary measure before they could come up with something more permanent-and it’s still there now.”

Andrea, alongside other residents affected by the issue, attended meetings with councillors to highlight the issue back in 2007 but she says no meetings have been taken place since.

She’s also written to the Home Office to highlight these ongoing issues.

Damages to Andrea’s property alone has cost up to £44,000 in insurance pay outs and she says it has lowered her property value.

Woodham Park Houses overlooking the playing field Woodham Park Houses overlooking the playing field (Image: NQ)

Residents are also concerned by plans to build a new carpark on the Buttrill’s field.

Andrea said: “The water will run from the car park to the back of our houses. The actual playing fields are all clay at least two foot down, so the water has nowhere to run off apart from coming back up and overflowing into our properties.”

“If they’re going to put a car park there, are they going to do anything about the flooding of the field first?”

A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesperson said: “Following flooding in July 2007, emergency works took place later that year to construct a ditch and earth banks, known as bunds.

“Additional work was carried out in 2009 to increase the amount of water that could be stored behind the bunds and better manage flows leaving the area. This included kerbing works to channel surface flows towards North Walk without flooding the adjoining gardens. 

“The bunds are periodically inspected and continue to function as designed, storing water before allowing it to spill in a controlled manner away from at-risk properties.

“Any residents affected by flooding are advised to contact the Council as Lead Local Flood Authority so incidents can be investigated and, where possible, potential solutions developed.”