Following flooding in the West of Scotland over the last few days, Paul Hendy of the Scottish Flood Forum was interviewed by David MacKay on Scotland Tonight.

Do you agree or disagree with the comments made by Paul?

It is becoming increasingly clear that years of underinvestment by local authorities and Scottish Water need to be scrutinised from a flooding viewpoint. Both should and must do more in the coming years as the statutory duties of the Flood Risk Management Scotland Act 2009 come fully into force.

Our experience with Fife Council has seen a massive improvement in the way they deal with flooding over the last three years. The flood officers are taking their duties extremely seriously, working hard behind the scenes to do as much as possible. Unfortunately the budget they are given is no where near enough!

Many properties were built on sites where flooding was either not considered or the development was allowed to take place as long as it appeared to meet a 1 in 30 year flood return period. Thankfully the building standards of today insist on at least 1 in 200 years and it is now common for a Flood Risk Assessment to be performed in areas at risk of flooding.

SEPA has impressed FFAG over the last few years as they carefully consider flooding issues and planning applications. They’ve saved the community from worse flooding on more than one occasion.

Sad to see flooding occurring in Scotland following the torrential rain over the last few days.

BBC flood photos:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15943842

Abington Primary School pupils rescued from flooding:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-15945986

Drivers stuck after rain causes flooding in Scotland:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-15922080

Here’s hoping no one has had their home flooded.

A flood alert is in force for Fife:

SEPA has issued a FLOOD ALERT for Fife.

Due to a continued period of prolonged and heavy rain which is forecast to continue throughout Wednesday, there is a risk of localised flooding, particularly from small watercourses, in the western areas of the region. The east of the region is not expected to experience the same degree of risk.
Intense periods of rainfall could result in some localised surface water issues in the west of the region, particularly in urban areas and on impermeable surfaces, such as the road network. Standing surface water may occur in these and other low lying areas.
SEPA will monitor the situation closely and provide further information when appropriate.

Remain vigilant and remember, it is your responsibility to take actions which help protect yourself and your property. Advice and information is available through Floodline on 0845 9881188. This FLOOD ALERT UPDATE is now in force until further notice. If you haven’t already signed up to receive free flood messages, please call Floodline or register online at sepa.org.uk/floodingsignup.

Park Road in Rosyth has suffered devastating flooding according to the Dunfermline Press:
http://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/roundup/articles/2011/08/11/416067-park-road–an-absolute-disaster-after-deluge/

STV is reporting flooding in Burntisland, Kilmany, St Andrews and Tayport:
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/tayside/265820-businesses-hit-and-roads-blocked-after-flooding-in-tayside-and-fife/

The BBC has done a great job of reporting on the Rosyth flood:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14474329

Very sad news day for Fife.  FFAG is thinking of the people in the areas affected by flooding. We hope everyone’s home is flood free.

Hopefully home owners have invested in floodgates, airbrick covers and other flood protection products. Sandbags just aren’t up to the job of preventing flooding, although they do have a part to play to help manage flood waters.

FFAG would like to recognise the part Fife Council employees have played over the last few days. An officer from Transportation Services was out yesterday checking watercourses and the hard working guys from Community Services, who would normally be cutting the grass and keeping Fife looking beautiful, were out today checking high flood risk sites.

Hopefully Freuchie, and other communities in Fife, won’t need to test out the other flood response improvements recently made by Fife Council and partner agencies.

The Met Office has upgraded their severe weather warning for Fife to Amber:

Rain, already across the area, will continue through Wednesday and Wednesday night, turning occasionally heavy through this period. On Thursday it will start to ease, but only slowly. The public should be prepared for disruption due to flooding from either standing water or swollen rivers and streams.

The weather must been turning out worse than expected.

SEPA has issued a flood alert for Fife:

A FLOOD ALERT has been issued for Fife.

Persistent and heavy rain is forecast to come through on Wednesday and continue through until mid Thursday .

Catchments are already partially saturated and this rain is expected to cause flooding, particularly in low lying and urban areas and from small watercourses. There is potential for greater impacts later today and the flood alert will be updated as more information becomes available.

UPDATE
This flood alert is over.

SEPA has issued a flood alert for Fife:

An updated FLOOD ALERT has been issued for Fife.

A spell of heavy and possibly thundery rain is expected across much of the region through Saturday and into Sunday. The rain is expected to start during the morning and give possible totals of between 25 and 35mm with higher totals expected over more eastern and coastal parts of Fife.
River levels across the region are currently low. However, rivers and smaller watercourses in the areas that are affected by the heaviest of the rain over the weekend will rise, which may result in some minor disruption.
There may be localised flooding issues in towns and communities across the region, with surface water and possible road flooding causing some disruption. The Flood Alert will be updated as further information is known.

Remain vigilant and remember, it is your responsibility to take actions which help protect yourself and your property. Advice and information is available through Floodline on 0845 9881188. This FLOOD ALERT UPDATE is now in force until further notice.

The Met Office has also issued an AMBER severe weather warning:

Rain will become persistent and often heavy across Southeast Scotland during the afternoon, spreading north into the rest of the East this evening and tonight. The rain will last through much of Sunday. Accumulations of 25 to 35mm are expected widely, with 60mm locally and a small risk of localised totals of 75 to 100mm in the Southeast.

Time to dust down your flood protection products ready to deploy just in case the rainfall is the worst case.

Falkland once again experienced flooding last Saturday evening. This is a very scary occurrence as the rainfall measured by the Freuchie Mill weather station was only about 10mm for the full day. This level of rainfall really shouldn’t be causing flood events!

Local resident Betty Gilchrist supplied the above photos and the following update to FFAG:

After a great lot of thunder in the afternoon with no rain, after 5.p.m. it did rain but nothing much to talk about, then suddenly at the back of 8 o’clock this water suddenly arrived by 10 o’clock it had greatly subsided. During the time of the flooding it managed to get in to the house of Bridge-end, they do have a  flood gate but as they only moved into the house a few weeks ago were not expecting this to happen in the summer. Burnside cottage did have their floodgate on and prevented them from having water in their house. As my house sits a bit higher I was lucky again, but the day might come. The water from the burn does not burst its banks  in Balmblae it bursts it’s banks in the West Loan park and runs along the road and into the houses in Balmblae.

Once again a flood event occurs in the highest priority area in Fife waiting for a flood study. Time for Fife Council to get this important investigation work out of the way to allow prevention and protection measures to be put in place for Falkland and Freuchie.

The Fife Herald has a news article in this week’s paper about the flood response improvements made by Fife Council and partner agencies. Freuchie is mentioned in the article with a comment or two being supplied by FFAG.

It is also available online here.

The new Freuchie Mill flood barrier gets a great write-up in this week’s Fife Herald.

You can also check the online version.