Much of Llanrwst was submerged by the floods

The Welsh Assembly Government is to be asked if a public inquiry should be held into the floods which devastated the Llanrwst area last month.

Conwy Council's cabinet decided on the move after hearing calls for an inquiry into the floods at a meeting on Thursday, saying it did not have the power to set up such a hearing itself.

Meanwhile, the authority's scrutiny committee will carry out its own review of the floods in which dozens of homes in Llanrwst were flooded and the village of Trefriw was cut off when the River Conwy burst its banks.

Residents complained they were not given enough warning and the Environment Agency, although saying it issued warnings, admitted they had been unprepared for the deluge in Trefriw which was last hit in the 1960s..

Earlier this month Elfyn Llwyd, MP for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, said the system of warnings put in place by the Environment Agency failed people whose homes were flooded last month.

Huw Jones, whose home was one of the houses which took the brunt of the flooding in Llanrwst's Conwy Terrace, just a few metres from the river, had called for an inquiry.

The ground floor of his house was submerged under a foot of water which ruined carpeting and wallpaper.

Red alert

"It's not something new to this area - every ten years we get these big floods," said Mr Jones.

"So something should be done by now with all these government workers in the environment - I think they could do something."

Llanrwst county councillor Dafydd Parry-Jones backed the calls.

"We know that the red alert, as it is called, is not given out in the absence of danger to up to 100 properties," he said.

"There wasn't danger to up to 100 properties, so they didn't give out this particular warning.

"That's something that needs to be changed because even if you get ten properties - I think they need to be properly informed."