Whilst out and about yesterday, we spotted a manhole cover was missing, most probably stolen. The manhole in question was installed by Fife Council last year as part of the new Freuchie Mill Road surface drainage improvement scheme. This is a disgraceful theft of important infrastructure.

Photo: Missing manhole cover at Freuchie Mill Road

Fife Council Transportation Services was immediately made aware of this issue and should be dealing with it promptly. Yet again the poor taxpayer has to pick up the bill.

A Freuchie Mill resident has just informed us the theft occurred sometime between Thursday evening and Friday morning. He tried to report the missing manhole cover to Fife Council only to be told it was Scottish Waters’ responsibility, who he subsequently telephoned. FFAG has asked Fife Council to clarify who is actually responsible for this surface drainage scheme.

Let us be clear to thieves that Freuchie residents will call out the Police to investigate any suspicious individual milling about or in the  act of committing a criminal offence.

Residents of Freuchie who use the old county road / track down to the Kettle Produce plant should take care not to fall into this danger. It’s probably wise to keep a tight lead on your dogs as you go past.

This incident will be reported on at the Freuchie Community Council meeting held tonight at 7:30pm in the Lumsden Hall.

UPDATE
Fife Council has promptly confirmed the drainage scheme is their responsibility. Looks like someone needs to tell the telephone call handlers .

Fife Council has now made the site safe by placing a pallet over the manhole chamber and putting a couple of road cones on top. Hopefully it won’t be too long before this temporary measure is replaced by something permanent and more secure.

A thanks goes to Fife Council for the prompt action.

A police officer from Cupar Police Station has been out to look over the crime scene and to take a statement.

Technorati Tags: Cupar, Fife, Fife Council, Freuchie, Freuchie Mill Road, police, Scottish Water

SEPA has issued a Flood Watch for Fife.

FLOOD WATCH

This statement was prepared on 19 November 2009 at 7:03 am.

A FLOOD WATCH has been issued for Fife and Clackmannanshire rivers.

A band of rain will stagnate over Clackmannanshire today with widespread totals of 25 to 40mm at low levels and 50 to 60mm over the higher ground. As the ground is already saturated localised flooding is expected.

This FLOOD WATCH is now in force until further notice.

Please continue to keep an eye on the situation in your area and listen to local radio and television for further information.

The Met Office has also issued an Advisory of Severe or Extreme Weather for Fife that covers today and tomorrow:

There is a moderate risk of severe weather affecting many western parts of Britain. During Thursday very wet and windy conditions are expected at times with widespread rain and gales in places with winds gusting around 60 MPH. Rain will be heavy at times, especially over windward hills and mountains. Rainfall accumulations of 30 to 50mm are expected through the whole period with locally over 80mm mainly across higher ground.

Issued at: 0645 Thu 19 Nov

The weather forecast over the next 36 hours isn’t too good. Ensure you are prepared to deploy flood defences and you have moved all valuables, and anything else you can’t afford to lose, to an upstairs room or attic.

For those of you who been following our Twitter account, you may have noticed Freuchie Mill residents were heading to Cupar to collect sandbags to dam off Freuchie Mill Road and to fully protect the few homes that haven’t yet got flood doors. We got there to discover Fife Council would rather bring them out to us on this occasion.

FFAG committee members have also inspected sites around the village and further afield to ensure we have a handle on potential flooding. You may well have seen us out at 5am touring the village.

We have discovered the water draining off the railway is causing flooding at the chicken farm, water that ultimately ends up at Freuchie Mill.

Technorati Tags: Cupar, FFAG, Fife Council, flood, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Met Office, SEPA

Just a little reminder that the Flood Barrier Awareness Day event is being held in Cupar today.

More information here.

Technorati Tags: Cupar, flood, flood barrier

The Scottish Flood Forum is aware there is a good deal of concern regarding protecting properties from flooding.

Paul Hendy of SFF commented,

My continued stance is each home owner has responsibility to protect their property and this is not necessarily the responsibility of the respective Council. In order to promote flood protection products and to let residents see them for themselves I have arranged a number of Flood Barrier Awareness Days to be held in various communities across Scotland.

Details of the Cupar event organised by Paul are below. The Scottish Flood Forum website also has details of other dates in Broxburn and Milnathort if you find you cannot make this one.

Date
Wed 30th Sept 2009

Time
3 – 7pm

Venue
The Cafe – County Buildings, St Catherine Street, Cupar, KY15 4TB

Event Description
The display and demonstration will be done by Rob Turner – who is an independent specialist in flood products. He does not work for any FD company but offers independent impartial advice on what is most suitable and affordable in respective properties.

Following the demonstration he will then arrange a no obligation and free of charge site survey / visit to any one who would like him to look at their properties.

The estimate will then be sent, but no follow up calls, or visits will be done. – Rob has many years in the building trade, and has extensive knowledge and understanding of the problems associated with protecting property.

It is anticipated once we know how many products are required the keenest prices will be negotiated to ensure that savings will be passed on to clients.

Technorati Tags: Broxburn, Cupar, flood, flood barriers, flood protection, flooding, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Milnathort, Paul Hendy, Rob Turner, Scottish Flood Forum

The Courier has a front page article on the flooding that affected so many parts of Scotland yesterday. It was particularly sad to see homes being flooded again with not even a year having past since they last got flooded.

The Scottish Sun also has a shorter write up that highlights the problem being made much worse by passing buses. Questions must be asked why buses were allowed to continue through the flood waters! Hopefully lessons will be learned and action applied to prevent problems being exasperated by large vehicles making the problem worse.

An interesting video and more photos are featured in this week’s Fife Herald as they cover the flooding. Find the article, photos and videos here.

Finally, the Scotsman also has a bit of a write-up on the flooding here. 

Technorati Tags: Courier, Cupar, Fife, Fife Herald,   flooding, Scotsman, Scottish Sun

Today’s flooding at Cupar and surrounding areas has been due to blocked trash screens on water courses and the sheer volume of water falling from the sky overwhelming the urban drainage system.

The BBC website is also reporting parts of Perth and Kinross have also been affected by flooding. The news article is here. Milnathort, which has been badly flooded in the past, has once again suffered as the urban drainage system was completely overwhelmed.

Thankfully we have been spared the extremely heavy rainfall that is causing such devastation elsewhere in Scotland today. The story in Freuchie could have been so different if we had seen the same volumes of rainfall! Praise goes to Fife Council who have been around today to check the culvert at Freuchie Mill was clear of obstructions.

Our thoughts do go out to those less fortunate this time around. 

Technorati Tags: Cupar, Fife, Fife Council, flooding, Freuchie, Kinross, Milnathort, Perth

It was one of the happiest days of Kay and Jim’s life when they tied the knot and flew off on honeymoon.  They were truly oblivious to the cruel hand of fate smiting down on Freuchie Mill whilst they were blissfully enjoying the first throngs of married life.

This is Kay’s story in her own words.

My husband and I returned from our honeymoon on 14^th August 2008. When we landed at Heathrow we had no idea of the devastation that awaited us back home. Having taken the decision not to worry us as we were travelling back from Canada, my mother and children had kept the conversations lighthearted and upbeat. I was however starting to worry as I had tried all day to phone home and the line was unavailable. My mother’s line was constantly engaged. I had sent my daughter an email but of course, unknown to me, she couldn’t get it as the pc was under the floodwater! I was relieved when we landed at Heathrow and I was able to speak with my mother who reported that everything was fine!

Anyway, faced with a 2.5 hr turnaround at Heathrow I passed the time by buying a Daily Record. That’s when reality hit us as we turned the pages. I cannot begin to describe the shock and fear we felt at seeing our house and our neighbour’s garden. First reaction, on reading the article was major relief that everyone was ok and safe. We then telephoned my mum again and she was devastated that we had found out this way.

The thing is, no matter how good the holiday, there is always the longing to get back home, catch up with family, have a cup of tea and a sleep in your own bed, all of which we were very much looking forward to.

Somehow we managed to board our flight, looking like walking zombies. My parents were waiting to collect us from Edinburgh airport and take us home. In spite of what we saw in the paper, nothing prepares you for the reality. Faced with no home and no cars and my 18yr old and 16yr old rushing to tell us what happened, we were utterly numb. My son had just bought himself his first car 2 weeks previous, a classic mini – his pride and joy – totally engulfed by floodwater. Devastated.

We were informed Kingdom Housing had arranged for us to stay at The Greenside Hotel in Leslie so we had to spend the night there. Sleep evaded us even though we were jet-lagged. In the morning we went to the offices of Kingdom Housing and asked for alternative accommodation. We were placed in a 2 bedroom caravan at Pettycur Bay. I work in Glenrothes, my husband works in Perth, my son is an apprentice joiner and my daughter is in 5^th year at Bell Baxter HS in Cupar, so this situation was not ideal, but we had no alternative. Thankfully, my husband managed to get a courtesy car for a few weeks to enable us to commute. However my son had to stay with friends closer to his work as the caravan was too small to accommodate him.

The weekend following the flood was spent with friends clearing our things out of the house, wading through the mud and finding storage in various places. Unfortunately, we were not covered by contents insurance as I hadn’t got around to renewing it. Lesson learned.

After 3 weeks at Pettycur we found the situation too stressful to bear (too small/cramped, noisy and uncomfortable) and asked Kingdom if they would accommodate the four of us in a private lett. We were told they wouldn’t do that. They offered us a move to Leven Beach caravan Park on 13^th September with the possibility of a house becoming available to decant into on the 4^th October at The Henge, Glenrothes.

Being faced with living in the caravan for another 6 weeks and my son not being able to live with us during that time, my husband and I took the decision to organise a private lett, funded by ourselves, so at least we could minimise the disruption to us all and be together again as a family.

Like everyone in Freuchie affected by the flooding, our lives have been turned totally upside down and then some. Having had such a wonderful, magical wedding and honeymoon we never dreamed we would come back down to earth with such a devastating bump.

The utter dismay, helplessness, major inconvenience, expense and stress caused by this cannot be put into words. We are trying to stay positive and focus on what’s important (family) but are truly and utterly devastated and very homesick! We’ve lost the home we had put our souls into, (yes property can be rebuilt but it will never be the same), our cars and our day-to-day lives as we knew it.

Putting it all into perspective, we have our family and we are all ok and that’s the main thing. We will overcome!

Kay Henderson, 3 Freuchie Mill

Technorati Tags: Cupar, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Mill, Glenrothes, Kingdom Housing Association, Perth