A “COMPLACENT” attitude to protecting Wales’ coastal defences has left them neglected at a time when the danger of flooding is expected to rise, a major report from the Wales Audit Office warns.

A report published today by In it the Auditor General claims that in the future it may not be possible to protect all communities from the threat of floods and residents may have to leave their homes.

Today’s report, Coastal Erosion and Tidal Flooding Risks in Wales, advises that severe storms will become more common as a result of climate change and sea levels are predicted to rise by around one metre over the next 100 years.

Six out of 10 people live on coastal plains in Wales today and flood risk is predicted to increase by up to 20 times in the next 80 years.

Areas in high risk include:

The Gwent Levels in South Wales;

Aberaeron, Aberystwyth, Tywyn and Borth in Mid Wales;

Kinmel Bay and the stretch from Towyn to Llandudno in North Wales.

Neither the Environment Agency nor the maritime authorities have a mandatory responsibility to maintain defences.

The report warns: “The absence of a major storm for almost two decades has led to low levels of capital investment and insufficient maintenance of defences with revenue directed to needs that are more obvious, including reducing the consequences of inland flooding. Misplaced confidence in defences and systems to prepare and recover from severe coastal incidents has led to complacency.”

However, the authors acknowledge that rising sea levels mean the traditional approach of building higher flood defences is “expensive and unsustainable”. The cost of improving existing defences could be in the region of £120m.

The report warns that people cannot expect expensive flood protection schemes like the Cardiff Bay barrage to be replicated across Wales. Councils such as Conwy may find that in some situations “it may not be sustainable to protect certain communities indefinitely and that they may need to consider a managed retreat programme”.

It states: “[For] some locations, such as centres of economic activity in Cardiff, the long-term value of maintaining and enhancing the effectiveness of defences is already evident… However, there is no legal right to protection, and for many coastal communities the investment needed to provide adequate protection into the future might be disproportionately large.”

It also says acknowledges that communities will face “difficult decisions” as the effects of climate change worsens.

Jeremy Colman, Auditor General for Wales, said: “Current flood defences can’t keep pace with environmental change so we need to drastically rethink our approach to safeguarding the coastline by adopting a more risk-based approach.”

The Wales Audit Office notes that the Assembly Government is “calling for people living in coastal communities to acknowledge the threat of flooding and think about moving to safer areas” and states: “Some coastal locations need to change their approach to flooding rather than continue with short-term solutions which perpetuate risks.”

The report also notes that people on people on lower incomes may lack the means to move to safer homes because “systems to compensate those with property threatened by coastal erosion or tidal flooding and to encourage relocation are not developed”.

The Assembly Government is criticised for the pace at which it is responding to the new dangers.

The report says: “We found that the Assembly Government is not providing sufficient strategic leadership to prepare for the increasingly pressing coastal management challenges.”

Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood said flood victims complained of “confusion, obfuscation and sometimes chaos when trying to work out which government body is responsible”.

Conservative Shadow Local Government Minister Darren Millar AM said: “Until we get that leadership, and until we have a dedicated all-Wales flood defence agency, homes, businesses and communities across the country will continue to be at risk.”

Environment Minister Jane Davidson said the Assembly Government had already made the changes in strategy recommended in the report.

She said: “The report calls for a change in our approach to flooding to a more risk-based approach – this is exactly what we did in June 2007. We have long recognised a defence-led approach was unsustainable. “We can’t stop flooding, but we can attempt to alleviate its impact on out communities. The simple truth is our communities are at growing risk from flooding and coastal erosion due to the impact of climate change.”

Story on the WalesOnline website

Read the press release on the Wales Audit Office website