Mid and north Wales MPs have call for urgent review of resilience measures amid continued disruption to electricity and communications across rural Wales following Storm Darragh.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, 10 December, Ceredigion Preseli MP Ben Lake and Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville-Roberts expressed “deep concern about the prolonged power outages, which have left residents without heating, water, or reliable means of communication.”

Mr Lake emphasised that the storm had “brought into very sharp relief just how dependent other key utilities are on electricity: from heating and water supply to mobile phone networks”, and noted that in rural areas, the loss of copper landlines in the recent digital switchover had made it more difficult for rural areas to communicate during extreme weather events.

Mr Lake said: “This storm left hundreds of thousands of homes without power and disrupted critical infrastructure.

“We are all grateful to the engineers who have worked tirelessly to restore power to over 1.7 million people under very challenging conditions, and I would also like to pay tribute to the emergency services and local authorities who have worked very hard to clear roads and provide support to households where possible.

“However, I am deeply concerned about the thousands of people still without electricity.

“This storm has brought into very sharp relief just how dependent other key utilities are on electricity: from heating and water supply to mobile phone networks.

“The latter concern is compounded in rural areas by the fact that many have lost their copper landlines in the recent digital switchover, and a system that is dependent on mains power supply.

“The increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as Storm Darragh due to climate change underscores the urgent need for robust civil protection measures, encompassing both our immediate response but also long-term resilience planning.

“Our experiences with Storm Darragh highlight the urgency with which we should review the adequacy of current arrangements: for example, if rural areas are without mobile signal, and no longer have copper landlines, how are they to receive important emergency information let alone call for assistance?”

He urged the UK Government to “commit to reviewing arrangements in light of this storm, including whether the Priority Services Register is adequate to address the needs of vulnerable residents during widespread power outages, and ensure that key utilities are equipped to mitigate the impacts of future extreme weather events.”

Also during the Commons session, Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP, Liz Saville Roberts said that electricity supplies have yet to be restored in some Gwynedd communities more than 72 hours after the red weather warning.

She said that “switching from copper to digital technology means that all landlines will need electricity to work in future” and “so do mobile masts.”

She asked whether the government will “commit to a government assessment of the resilience of mobile and landline communication in Wales, and also the adequacy of support given to elderly and vulnerable people by BT/EE during the switchover process?”