A committee has been set up to review land drainage by-laws after a public consultation on the matter only received four responses.

Last year, Conwy councillors approved the opening of the consultation on the Welsh Government’s new land drainage by-laws, which are being brought in to help councils prevent flooding.

All councils will have to adopt them or get permission to vary them, and anybody who breaches the law could be fined up to £5,000.

The existing by-laws were found to be outdated and focussed mostly on main rivers, making them unsuitable for local authorities to manage the risk of flooding.

The new rules will prevent anyone from planting trees or carrying out construction work that would interfere with a watercourse.

Next week, a committee of Conwy county councillors will meet to review the changes.

A report to members said: “A public consultation was held between November 2018 and February 2019, with requests sent to Snowdonia National Park, all town and community councils, Natural Resources Wales (NRW), National Farmers Union (NFU) and Farming Connect.

“The consultation was promoted in the local media, social media and on the council’s website. The website also included an online survey.

“Only four responses were received, of which three were made through the online survey.

“There was insufficient data to obtain a meaningful output from the consultation. However, no issues were raised.”

But councillors had raised their own concerns about the by-laws, including fears about the impact on farmers, that there was no definition of animals, the responsibility of land owners to repair any problems and issues relating to development land and the possibility of flooding down river.

In response to these concerns, Cllr Donald Milne, the cabinet member for the environment, advised that the NFU had been consulted and raised no objections.

The committee will meet on Thursday at Bodlondeb in Conwy.