Residents' anger after burst brook floods homes

People in a Flintshire village have been up all night trying to prevent flooding damage after a brook breached its banks.

Water began pouring into houses on Ffordd Dewi in Oakenholt at about 19:00 GMT on Sunday, destroying floors and coming through walls.

Matty Williams, whose home was flooded, said it was "frustrating" because residents previously reported the brook's flooding but "nothing was done".

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service (NWFRS) was in attendance all night and was still working on Monday to pump the flood water away from the properties.

North Wales Fire and Rescue spent the night pumping the water away from a culvert and from the brook and spent Monday monitoring the situation.

Mr Williams said the water flooded the kitchen, hallway and the living room and "ruined" the floors.

"We haven't stopped since about 19:00 last night, haven't slept," he added.

His partner Bethan Dixon said Greenbelt - the grounds maintenance company they pay annually - was told about debris left after Storm Darragh as well as flooding, but they heard nothing back.

Greenbelt says the area which caused the flooding is not in their area of responsibility, and that it has dealt with maintenance issues in the past two months where the water runs in its area.

Neighbour Nicola Day-Coiley said the brook has "not been maintained for years" and "no-one seems to want to take full responsibility".

She said it needed to be unblocked and maintained regularly.

Chris Day-Coiley said: "The last thing you want to be doing when it floods is trying to figure out who you need to be calling. We felt helpless."

Jay Whitby, whose house was also flooded, said she and her neighbours noticed the stream flooding several times over the past few months.

She said the fire service arrived and the community helped by building a dam, adding: "If it wasn't for all of them I don't know what we would have done."

NWFRS group manager Tim Owen said 11 properties were affected and fire crews were pumping the flood water into the estuary via a flood plain - which they are monitoring to ensure no other properties are hit.

The developer of the estate Anwyl homes said Greenbelt was responsible for the maintenance of the open culverts on site and Flintshire County Council was responsible for the maintenance of the culvert where it passes under the roads and footpaths.

"We sympathise with all homeowners affected by the flooding in Oakenholt and understand how worrying this must have been," a spokesperson said,

"We are in touch with the relevant authorities responsible for maintaining the culverts on site and will be assisting their investigations where we can."

This flooding comes as a new yellow warning for snow and ice has been issued for most of Wales.

The warning, which starts at 17:00 on Monday and ends at 10:00 on Tuesday, covers all of Wales' 22 counties except Anglesey.

The Met Office has warned that "icy stretches" are expected to develop on Monday evening due to wet surfaces formed by earlier rain and melting snow.

Sleet or snow showers are also expected to affect Wales.

The forecaster said that, in addition to ice, a build up of snow was possible in some high areas.

It follows a weekend of snow across much of Wales, bringing with it travel disruption.

Flintshire County Council has been asked to comment.