A local authority has been challenged over claims it has improved its response to flooding events one year after severe weather wreaked havoc.

Dozens of residents in Wrexham were impacted when Storm Christoph hit the area last January as torrential downpours caused water to enter their homes.

Among the communities worst hit were Bangor-on-Dee, New Broughton, Pontfadog and Rossett, while a landslide in Newbridge caused part of a road to collapse down an embankment.

Wrexham Council was criticised for its slow response to the flooding after residents in some places were forced to buy their own sandbags.

A report was presented to councillors on Wednesday, January 19 highlighting efforts to reduce the impact of extreme weather.

However, a politician who was praised for his efforts to help people impacted by the flooding in New Broughton questioned how much progress had been made.

Gwenfro ward councillor Nigel Williams said he was concerned about the lack of contact between officers and community leaders to identify problem areas and confirm emergency response procedures.

He said: “It's been well documented that the council failed miserably on the night.

“I was the go-between for emergency services organising things like where to decant people to from their houses and organising transport.

“Like lots of villages around Wrexham there aren’t any community centres anymore, but luckily I had the phone number for the local vicar for Southsea who very kindly opened up.

“The report does actually say that the humanitarian assistance team will open and operate emergency reception rest centres

“We haven’t had any phone calls at all as regards to where to open up in our areas.

“Anytime now we could have another flood or emergency, but there are still no protocols in place that I can see to make any difference to last year.”

Approximately 20 houses in New Broughton were deluged by water when the River Gwenfro burst its banks.

Cllr Williams said improvements had been made to the drainage system in the area to try and prevent a repeat.

A report to members of the homes and environment scrutiny committee also revealed more than 26,000 road gullies used to collect surface water have been cleaned or unblocked in the last ten months.

The figure represents about three quarters of the total amount of gullies in the county borough.

Speaking earlier in the meeting, deputy council leader David A Bithell said he believed improvements had been made to the authority's response to floods.

He said: “Some of the improvements that have gone on are quite significant.

“We've been lobbying hard with the Welsh Government and are in regular liaison with ministers and officials, in particular in relation to Newbridge.

“It's also worth highlighting as well, that we've add some extra money of £285,000 for Gwenfro, Pontfadog, Darland Lane and Hampden Way in Plas Madoc and we've had additional money of £175,000, which we've secured for work at Newbridge.

“I think it's also worth noting that officers within the environment department in particular have been liaising and looking at how to improve flood management response.”

Responding to the issues raised by Cllr Williams, the council's chief officer for environment and technical said Covid-19 restrictions had caused delays in working with members.

Darren Williams said: “I'm not going to say for one minute that it's down to the health pandemic, but that certainly hasn't eased this problem.

“I've lived in the area for my whole life and in 52 years, I've never seen that riverbank break the way it did.

“We hope that never happens again, but there are preventative measures there to assist with that now.

“As soon as we have the lifting of restrictions and the training is ready to roll, we will roll that out to elected members and that is that is a firm commitment.”

Councillors requested to receive a further report on the council's response to flooding in six months' time.