Barbara Candlish, 79, owner of the Tredegar Arms Hotel in Rhymney, is dreading the return of winter as a blocked culvert threatens to flood her property. Despite the current heatwave, she fears the next heavy rain could submerge the building she has spent years restoring.
Flooding from blocked culvert
Barbara bought the former pub on Hill Street in 2022, intending to turn it into a B&B for weddings, but those plans are on hold. A blocked culvert on a field behind the pub causes a deep pool of water to collect before a “tsunami” gushes onto her land during heavy rain. “It looks like a water fall, like a curtain of water. It makes its way down the steps that go into my yard and it’s like a torrent. It’s just horrendous,” she said.
In November 2022, about four feet of water flooded her cellar. “Water like a tsunami came gushing through. We had to let it go into the cellar,” she recalled.
Uncertain responsibility
The Land Registry shows the land is unregistered, meaning the owner is unclear. Under the Land Drainage Act 1991, the riparian owner is responsible for maintaining the culvert, but Barbara has been unable to identify them. Despite repeated pleas to Caerphilly County Borough Council, the issue remains unresolved. “The council hasn’t been very supportive or helpful to me. A council worker said he phoned the owners who said they would have a discussion about the blocked culvert. That was months ago now and it was the last thing I heard,” she said.
Barbara suspects the culvert is linked to a United Welsh-owned housing estate, Benjamin Court, built in the 1990s. “Local knowledge says there were previously a row of houses on the site that used to flood a lot. United Welsh could go ahead and build the complex provided they dealt with the flooding,” she explained. A concrete pipe behind Benjamin Court appears to deposit water into the blocked culvert, increasing flood risk.
Temporary overflow trench
In 2024, Barbara spent hundreds of pounds on an overflow trench lined with black plastic sandbags, which diverts water to the road drain. “It has sort of controlled it. The pub hasn’t flooded since, it’s doing its job but it’s just a temporary fix,” she said. However, she worries the trench could fail during heavy rain, and she fears a landslip from waterlogged ground.
Even with the trench, she cannot open the B&B. “We can’t have clients due to the fear that the barricade is going to give. I live in fear because until the culvert is dealt with, the problem is still there,” she said. Barbara, who previously ran holiday lets, envisions micro weddings and funerals, but says “we can’t really get going until this culvert issue is sorted.”
Council response
A Caerphilly council spokesman said: “Caerphilly County Borough Council is aware of the issues in relation to the flooding from the unregistered land and recognise the disruption and anxiety that this is causing. Council staff have attended on several occasions to provide support during flooding incidents and to assess the situation. The council has traced some of the owners of the unregistered land and is assisting the riparian owners of the watercourse in finding a solution.”
United Welsh told WalesOnline it is confident that planning conditions for Benjamin Court were satisfied, though it may not be possible to find who granted planning permission.
