Never Caught OutIndependent UK guide Crisis

Local · Wales

Vale of Glamorgan

Who to call and where to check in Vale of Glamorgan when the power goes off, rivers rise or a storm is coming: official links and figures, each with its source.

Independent UK guideData gathered 2 November 2026Welsh principal area · ONS code W06000014 · Welsh name: Bro Morgannwg

In an emergency

If someone’s life is in danger, call 999. For a power cut, call 105. This page lists official sources and figures. It does not say how safe or risky anywhere is.

All Saints Church, Barry
Photo: Cath Mudford, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

At a glance

Type
Welsh principal area
ONS code
W06000014
Area
331 km²
Fire and rescue
South Wales
Police
South Wales
Emergency planning partnership
South Wales Local Resilience Forum
Largest built-up areas
Barry (Vale of Glamorgan), Penarth, Rhoose and Eglwys-Brewis

Council emergency pages

  • Council website valeofglamorgan.gov.uk
  • Emergency planning Same page as above.
  • Gritting and winter roads Same page as above.
  • Current emergencies and severe weather Same page as above.

Councils announce rest centres, road closures and emergency help on these pages and their social media. Find your council by postcode (GOV.UK).

Power cuts

Report a power cut or check one: call 105 free from any phone, or use the operator’s website.

Network operator (not your supplier):

Ofgem’s figures for the whole licence area, April 2024 to March 2025, counting cuts of 3 minutes or longer:

  • South Wales (National Grid Electricity Distribution): 42.1 interruptions per 100 customers and 27.5 minutes without power per customer (2023/24: 46.3 and 26.1)

Great Britain as a whole: 39.7 and 35.1. These are area averages, not figures for Vale of Glamorgan alone. About this dataset

Flooding

Natural Resources Wales: 5 flood alert areas and 13 flood warning areas overlap Vale of Glamorgan. Waters named: Coast, River Cadoxton, River Ely, Irish Sea, Hoddnant, River Thaw.

Warning areas include: Coast at Aberthaw; Coast at Penarth; Coast at Swanbridge and Barry; River Cadoxton at Dinas Powys; River Ely at Ely in Cardiff; River Ely at Peterston Super Ely; River Ewenny at Cwrt Gwilym, Pencoed; River Ewenny at Ewenny Village; and 5 more.

Natural Resources Wales: flooding · Sign up to receive flood warnings

Weather warnings

The Met Office issues yellow, amber and red warnings for rain, wind, snow, ice, fog, thunderstorms and extreme heat. Current Met Office warnings (choose Wales on the map) · What the colours mean

Health: NHS help and the nearest A&E

For urgent medical help that is not life-threatening, use NHS 111 Wales or call 111. Find local services (NHS 111 Wales)

The nearest major emergency departments to the centre of each of the largest built-up areas, by straight-line distance (as the crow flies, not by road):

  • Barry (Vale of Glamorgan): University Hospital Of Wales (12.1 km); The Royal Glamorgan Hospital (17.8 km); Weston General Hospital (22.5 km, England). Nearest other emergency departments or minor injury units: Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr (25.0 km); Royal Gwent Hospital (26.5 km).
  • Penarth: University Hospital Of Wales (7.2 km); The Royal Glamorgan Hospital (18.5 km). Nearest other emergency departments or minor injury units: Royal Gwent Hospital (20.0 km); Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr (21.4 km).
  • Rhoose: University Hospital Of Wales (16.7 km); The Royal Glamorgan Hospital (17.2 km). Nearest other emergency departments or minor injury units: Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr (27.5 km); Royal Gwent Hospital (31.8 km).

About this dataset

Never Caught Out is not affiliated with the NHS.

Water supply

Water company for this area:

To report no water, low pressure or a burst main, use the company’s page above. Your water bill names your supplier.

Water resource zones covering Vale of Glamorgan: SE Wales C.U. System (Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water). What a water resource zone is

What to do when the water goes off

Local risks and emergency planning

  • Coast: about 58 km of the council boundary is shoreline at mean high water, by our measurement (this includes tidal estuaries). Coastal flooding and storm surges are possible; the flood areas above include any coastal ones.
  • Flooding: 13 flood warning areas and 5 flood alert areas overlap the council area (details above).
  • South Wales Local Resilience Forum publishes a community risk register: the official list of emergencies that planners prepare for here. The register document.
  • Hazards the register names include (our grouping of its wording): Flooding; Storms and severe weather; Animal disease; Pandemic; Cyber attacks; Outbreaks of infectious disease; Industrial and chemical accidents; Terrorism; Snow and low temperatures; Power cuts. Open the register for how likely and how serious each one is judged to be.
  • Sandbags and flood help: Flooding (the council’s own page; councils differ on whether they supply sandbags, so check what it says).

We list only what official sources say. We do not rate how safe or risky anywhere is.

Map

The red line is the Vale of Glamorgan council boundary (ONS, Open Government Licence; contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2025). Map tiles and data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Without JavaScript you see the boundary outline only. Open this area on OpenStreetMap.

Phone and broadband coverage

Ofcom’s predictions of normal coverage in Vale of Glamorgan, January 2026. They are not live outages and not a guarantee for any address.

  • Homes and businesses with 4G indoors from all four networks: 86%; from none: 0.3%.
  • Outside homes and businesses, 4G from all four networks: 98%; from none: 0%.
  • Land area with outdoor 4G from all four networks: 93%; from none: less than 0.1%.
  • Premises that can get gigabit-capable broadband: 91%.
  • Premises that cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s down, 1 Mbit/s up) from a fixed line or fixed wireless: 87 (0.1%).

Check an address on Ofcom’s coverage checker · Phones when the network is down: how to reach 999 · About this dataset

Local radio

BBC Radio Wales · BBC Radio Cymru

This is the BBC station for the county or area, from the BBC Sounds station list. Coverage overlaps council boundaries, so tune to whichever station you receive.

Census 2021: planning prompts

  • Households with no car or van: 16.6%
  • Residents aged 65 or over: 22.0%
  • Households of one person aged 66 or over: 14.8%

Who would fetch food or medicines for you or a neighbour on icy or flooded roads, and who would you check on in a power cut? Ask your pharmacist about repeat prescriptions before bad weather.

Largest built-up areas

  • Barry (Vale of Glamorgan)

    NRW warning areas naming Barry: Coast at Swanbridge and Barry.

  • Penarth

    NRW warning areas naming Penarth: Coast at Penarth.

  • Rhoose
  • Eglwys-Brewis

Other built-up areas include Dinas Powis, Cowbridge, Llantwit Major, Sigingstone, West Aberthaw and Boverton.

Neighbouring councils

Bridgend, Cardiff, Rhondda Cynon Taf

Guides for any emergency

How these figures were gathered

  • Council links come from GOV.UK Local Links Manager, the list councils keep for GOV.UK. We opened each one on 2 November 2026; links that no longer worked are left out, and a few council sites blocked our automated check, which is noted beside the link.
  • Area is our measurement of the ONS generalised (clipped to the coastline) boundary, so it can differ slightly from official area figures.
  • A flood area counts as overlapping if at least 1% of it lies inside the council boundary.
  • A&E distances are straight lines from the centre point ONS gives for each built-up area to the centre of the hospital’s postcode. Travel distances and times will be longer.
  • Water resource zones are listed when at least 1% of the council’s area falls inside them. The Environment Agency says the zone map is for mapping only, not for checking a property.
  • Phone and broadband figures are Ofcom’s council-level predictions for January 2026. Mobile coverage uses Ofcom’s signal thresholds; an operator’s network counts if its predicted signal meets them.
  • Coastline is our measurement of the ONS boundary clipped to mean high water, where it is not shared with another council. It includes estuary shores, so it is longer than the open coast; we only mention it above 20 km.
  • The hazard list is our grouping of the words the register uses: we list a hazard when its terms appear at least twice in the register’s text. It is not a rating of risk, and the register may cover more.
  • Census figures are planning prompts, not risk scores. The household figure uses 66 and over, as the census tables do.
  • Built-up areas are the largest by land area from ONS Built-up Areas 2022. Flood areas listed under a town are those whose official name includes it; a missing area does not mean a street will not flood.

Official sources we used

  1. Find your local council (GOV.UK; council links from GOV.UK Local Links Manager) (GOV.UK)
  2. Local authority district to fire and rescue authority, police force area, region and local resilience forum lookups (2025) (ONS Open Geography Portal)
  3. Map data and tiles (Open Database Licence) (OpenStreetMap contributors)
  4. RIIO-2 Electricity Distribution annual report 2024 to 2025: supplementary data file (Open Government Licence) (Ofgem)
  5. 105: the power cut helpline (Energy Networks Association)
  6. National Grid Electricity Distribution: power cuts (National Grid Electricity Distribution)
  7. Find my network operator (licence area boundaries) (Energy Networks Association)
  8. Flood Warning Areas (Open Government Licence; contains Natural Resources Wales information © NRW and database right) (Natural Resources Wales via DataMapWales)
  9. Flood Alert Areas (Natural Resources Wales via DataMapWales)
  10. Flooding (Natural Resources Wales)
  11. Sign up to receive flood warnings (Natural Resources Wales)
  12. UK weather warnings (Met Office)
  13. List of A&E type 1 departments (April 2026) (NHS England)
  14. Emergency departments: performance against waiting times targets (sites reporting in September 2026) (Welsh Government (StatsWales))
  15. Postcode locations (OS OpenData licence; contains Ordnance Survey, Royal Mail and National Statistics data) (postcodes.io)
  16. NHS 111 Wales (NHS Wales)
  17. Local services (NHS 111 Wales)
  18. Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water: In your area (Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water)
  19. Water Resource Zones (Open Government Licence; contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and/or database rights; some information © water companies) (Environment Agency)
  20. Find your water company (regions served) (CCW (Consumer Council for Water))
  21. Connected Nations update: Spring 2026, mobile and fixed coverage data (Open Government Licence) (Ofcom)
  22. Stations (local and nations radio) (BBC Sounds)
  23. BBC Radio Wales: listen live (BBC Sounds)
  24. BBC Radio Cymru: listen live (BBC Sounds)
  25. South Wales Local Resilience Forum: community risk register (South Wales Local Resilience Forum)
  26. Flooding (Vale of Glamorgan council)
  27. South Wales Local Resilience Forum: community risk register (South Wales Local Resilience Forum)
  28. Local resilience forums: contact details (Cabinet Office)
  29. Census 2021 TS045: Car or van availability (ONS via Nomis)
  30. Census 2021 TS007A: Age by five-year age bands (ONS via Nomis)
  31. Census 2021 TS003: Household composition (ONS via Nomis)
  32. Built-up Areas (December 2022) GB boundaries (ONS Open Geography Portal)

We link to official pages so you can check the latest advice yourself. If something here differs from what an official source says now, follow the official source. Where we quote or adapt official text, it contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.