Freuchie Flood Action Group

During tonight’s Freuchie Community Council meeting the issue of the Lomond Homes development for affordable housing to be owned and operated by Kingdom Housing at Broomfield Place was mentioned. The developer has now submitted plans which has some concern for FFAG, the most glaring of which is the developers haven’t been able to get a response from SEPA about the flooding risk in this area. We will be discussing this further with both Lomond Homes and Kingdom Housing to ensure the best outcome for the village and to minimise the flood risk for existing members of the community as well as the new homes.

The community council would like to further consult with the community about this development and have pencilled in the evening of the 24th March 2010 for a public meeting. It will start at 7:30pm in the Lumsden Memorial Hall.

Technorati Tags: FFAG, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council, Kingdom Housing, Lomond Homes, SEPA

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

The Times carried an interesting story on Saturday where it was reported that a civil engineer from Sheffield University argued for roads to be adapted to serve as stand-by rivers during flash floods. This is certainly an appropriate solution that could be used as one part of the flood prevention and protection work at Freuchie Mill.

Members of FFAG has been voicing this as a favoured and very plausible solution for some time now, so we’re gratified to learn we are in esteemed company with our thoughts. This solution doesn’t have the same flood water capacity handling issues as many of the other civil engineering designs put forward so far.

Thanks go to Terri of Freuchie Community Council for spotting this article and passing it along to us.

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60mm of rainfall overnight has seen areas of England and Wales affected by flooding. Our hearts goes out to the communities affected by this latest tragedy. We hope a minimal amount of business and homes are wrecked by the flood waters. More information can be found at this BBC news article.

This should be a timely reminder that rainfall events such as we saw last summer in Freuchie are now part of the norm. Let us all redouble of efforts in the campaign to improve flood prevention and protection for Freuchie.

As a starting point, you may like to come along to the public consultation meeting next week, which has been organised by FFAG and Freuchie Community Council. We’ve added another speaker to the evening!

Technorati Tags: England, FFAG, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council

Mike Russell MSP, Minister for the Environment, has unfortunately had to call off his visit to Freuchie today. His office called a short time ago to let us know. They will be back in touch to reschedule the visit for another date.

Apologies to our invited guests, residents and the media who were so looking forward to the Minister’s visit. We will be back in touch soon to let you know the new date.

Technorati Tags: FFAG, flooding, flood, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Mike Russell, Minister for the Environment

Liz Rougvie of the Fife Herald has written an excellent front page story on the formation of Freuchie Flood Action Group and reported on the tragedy of Kay’s story. You couldn’t ask for more than to be the biggest story in Fife this week.

Thanks Liz.

Technorati Tags: FFAG, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group. Fife Herald, Liz Rougvie