Written by Fife Council may not be able to supply sandbags during a flood as Fife wide demand may well outstrip supply or they may be so overstretched that they won’t be able to deliver sandbags in time. Even when they are able to deliver sandbags, it may not be enough to make a difference.
From the Emergency Planning with Fife Council FAQ:
Q. Will the council provide me with sandbags in the event of flooding?
The council encourages householders to be prepared for flooding if they are in known flood area. However, flash flooding is happening more often and all homeowners should be making arrangements to look after their own properties and families. There are companies such as builder’s merchants who can provide you with flood defence products.
In emergencies, the council will provide a range of support measures for the Emergency Services including, where possible, the provision of sandbags.
Sandbags may not keep out all flood water! They will also degrade within 3 – 6 months when exposed to sunlight hence they cannot be used as a permanent flood prevention barrier without additional measures and regular inspection. Disposal of used sandbags is also an environmental pollution issue that necessitates removal to a specially licensed landfill site.
Freuchie property known to be at risk of flooding must be protected by the owner. Other residents who fear for their property may also like to consider assessing the risk and steps necessary to protect their property.
Paul Hendy of the Scottish Flood Forum comments:
My continued stance is each home owner has responsibility to protect their property and this is not necessarily the responsibility of the respective Council.
The homes on the south of the village must be considered as an at risk area following the flooding of Albany Crescent flood last Sunday. Residents in streets downhill of Albany Crescent should think about how future flooding may affect them. Dedicated flood protection products should be installed or deployed if residents wish to stand the best chance of keeping flood water out of their property.
Technorati Tags: Albany Crescent, Fife, Fife Council, flood, flooding, flood prevention, Freuchie, sandbags
I would have thought it to be prudent to leave some sandbags (filled or ready to be filled) so that they can be placed across the road to stop the water from the chicken farm running into Freuchie Mill, until such times as better flood prevention measures are completed.
Had some been available the other night, it would have saved us from frantically digging out those old breeze blocks.
Its all very well saying that its the homeowner’s responsibility to protect their own properties but what about the Kingdom Housing tenants?
What are we supposed to do? Its hard enough to get them to do anything about other problems such as damp, noisy neighbours, leaky roofs etc never mind expensive flood prevention measures.
They have done Sierra Foxtrot Alpha since last year’s flood. (Bar shoring up the culvert outflow and I’m pretty sure that was the council rather than Kingdom)
We have requested a sandbag storage unit be placed up at the entrance to Freuchie Mill for the exact purpose you mention. Awaiting a reply from Fife Council. One way or tuther we’ll get some sorted out.
To be fair to Kingdom Housing:
1. It was Kingdom, or maybe their insurers, who paid for the culvert reinstatement.
2. They have retained a Civil Engineering company to look at flood prevention measures. So far some of the solutions have not been cheap!
3. Andy Walls has indicated to me that they will be fitting floodgates to the properties at risk. Sounds like this will be done within a few weeks.
The near miss of Sunday has shaken people into action again. We’ll keep the momentum going now
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Have you seen page 3 of this week’s Fife Herald? Someone called Ross Robertson has got a photo published. Thanks for the permission to use it. It really helps the cause.
The last that I heard was that they had three shortlisted schemes. One was replace the culvert with a larger one, another was place an additional culvert alongside the existing and the last was build a flood diversion channel along the back of the houses backing on to trees by the chicken farm.
I guess all of these take time to go through all the red tape but to the layman on the street, is seems as is if nothing is happening.
Good news about the press coverage. Hopefully it will focus the attention of the powers that be, that something needs to be done about the problem. You kinda feel guilty taking pictures while things are going downhill but I suppose someone needs to take a visual record of how bad things actually were and how near to disaster we came. That’s the old journalism training kicking in!
At least when you talk to people, they may not remember the actual flooding or where it was but they seem to remember the imfamous picture of the shed. Its all to clear from that how bad things were and why we must do everything we can not to let it happen again.
The three schemes you mention are the last ones we heard. Not likely to happen soon with the scary amounts of money they were talking about. I saw Gordon Bayne, the consultant civil engineer, out today with the Kingdom guys. Hopefully he went away with an improved understanding of the problems.
There are simpler and far cheaper actions that can be taken to help reduce the flood risk considerably in a shorter timescale. Routing the water coming down through Freuchie Mill House to the burn at the downstream end and looking at putting in more control measures for the upstream flow are a couple that easily spring to mind. The water drainage channel that comes down through the chicken farm and empties out upstream of us could be re-routed to its original course alongside the chicken farm road and down the side and back of the cottages.
At the beginning of the incident I told everyone to take as many photos as possible so there is no need for you to feel guilty. I cannot thank you enough for getting some fantastic shots that aid in our campaign for changes to happen quickly. Even better that one of them was good enough to feature in the Fife Herald and keeps us in the news.
I really feel that tenants nowadays get the worst deal in so many areas. For example, insurance for tenants costs so much more. All the rights help those who have bought their property. Apart from they don’t usually own it, because the bank really does. Therefore why should “owners” receive a better deal for services.