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

Freuchie Community Council

Meeting 7.30 pm Wednesday 10th March 2010

Lumsden Memorial Hall

AGENDA

1. Welcome and Apologies

2. Membership Resignations of J Kenyon and Marilyn Brown

3. Minutes of meeting of 10th February

4. Fife Council Matters – Councillors/Locality Manager

5. Presentations by the youth of Freuchie at 8pm

6. Treasurer’s Report

7. Planning (to be advised at meeting)
— New Applications None to date
— Applications dealt with None to date

8. Correspondence (to be advised at meeting)
— Matters for decision/action
— Matters for noting

9. Other Business
— Multi-use Games Area update
— Flooding in Freuchie update
— Footpath from Green Tree Brae to Dykeside update
    (Technical meeting on Thursday in Cupar)

10. Date of the AGM and next meeting will be at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 14th April 2010 in the Lumsden Memorial Hall.

Technorati Tags: Fife Council, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council

Meeting 7.30 pm Wednesday 10^th February 2010

Lumsden Memorial Hall

AGENDA

1. Welcome and Apologies

2. Minutes of meeting of 13^th January

3. Fife Council Matters – Councillors/Locality Manager

4. Treasurer’s Report

5. Planning (to be updated at meeting)

1. New Applications None to date
2. Applications dealt with None to date

6. Correspondence (to be advised at meeting)

Matters for decision/action

Matters for noting

7. Other Business

— Multi-use Games Area update

— Flooding in Freuchie update.

— Footpath from Green Tree Brae to Dykeside update

— Invitation of village youth to March meeting

8. Date of next meeting will be at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 10^th March 2010 in the Lumsden Memorial Hall

Technorati Tags: Fife Council, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council

Freuchie Community Council has released the November 2009 meeting minutes. They are available from here on the Smart Community Fife website.

Technorati Tags: Freuchie Community Council, Smart Community Fife

At the Freuchie Community Council meeting last night Cllr MacDiarmid announced the intention of Fife Council to bring forward the work required to reduced the flood risk from water running down and off Freuchie Mill Road. It has been indicated that the work will be completed by February / March 2010.

A few weeks ago council officers came onsite to look at the problem and to start the process of looking into possible solutions. We liaised with these officers and offered our local knowledge and some of our ideas for flood prevention measures. Surveyors are onsite today taking measurements for the Freuchie Mill Road Drainage improvement works. Good progress is now being made on this project.

Thank you to our local councillors and Fife Council officers for recognising the urgency and importance of this work and prioritising it accordingly. This small project is going to make a considerable difference to the flooding issue at Freuchie Mill.

Technorati Tags: Cllr MacDiarmid, Fife Council, flood, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council, Freuchie Mill

During the Community Emergency Planning meeting this week,  the community was joined by representatives from Fife Fire & Rescue Service. We cannot stress enough how much value there was in having Tom Fox (Glenrothes Station Manager) and Neil McFarlane (Deputy Chief Fire Officer) come along to the meeting.

Tom delivered an enlightening and informative presentation, during which he covered everything from emergency planning and procedures, operation capacity, health and safety, equipment available to fight back flood waters and many other areas. It is amazing how much information he supplied in only 15 minutes. 

During the Q&A segment, Neil commented:

We (Fire Service personnel) will put our lives on the line to save your life! It is what we sign up to do.

This was certainly a wow moment! The general public know the emergency services routinely go into dangerous situations, but it doesn’t fully strike home the dedication and sense of duty these brave men and women have in the delivery of public service until you’ve heard it from their lips.

It was incredibly sad to see the death of PC Bill Barker in Cumbria while he was serving the local community. His wife’s words reported on the BBC website illustrate his dedication to serve the public. Freuchie Flood Action Group would like to express our immense admiration for PC Barker’s bravery and heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and work colleagues.

Now back to Neil McFarlane for more insightful words:

In times of flood, we must comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act. We have to work safely and minimise the risk to ourselves and the general public. Property owners do not have the same constraints and may well perform actions that we would not be able to do.

Residents must recognise the emergency services are working within the confines of the law of the land. They have the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the training and have over many years devised safe procedures and systems of work for all the emergency situations they experience. When emergency service personnel instruct residents to perform a certain action it is being done by professionals who assess and deal with life threatening risk every day. Do not ignore these instructions and recommendations or you may end up making the ultimate sacrifice!

FFAG would like to thank both Neil McFarlane and Tom Fox for accepting our invitation to last week’s meeting and Freuchie Community Council for providing the timeslot during the meeting. The information they shared with the community was very enlightening and useful. The whole community looks forward to working more with the outstanding professionals from Fife Fire & Rescue Service in the future, although we do hope it is proactive rather than reactive fire fighting… or maybe that should be flood fighting!

Technorati Tags: Cumbria, Fife, Fife Fire & Rescue Service, flood, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Health and Safety at Work Act, Neil McFarlane, Tom Fox

At last week’s Community Council meeting, it was agreed to organise a community led emergency planning meeting with a view to looking at how flooding can be responded to by the citizens of Freuchie. This is an extension of an idea put forward recently by Freuchie Flood Action Group.

Freuchie Community Council will be hosting a public meeting this week to start to identify and plan for an improved community response to the current flood risk and future flooding events.

The details of the meeting are:

Venue: Lumsden Memorial Hall

Date & Time: 7pm on Thu 19th Nov

All flood affected and at risk residents are especially welcome, along with Freuchie citizens who would be willing to offer assistance in times of flood emergency. This is very much a meeting of what we can and will be doing in the future and how YOU can help to prevent future flood devastation.

Technorati Tags: emergency planning, flood, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council, Freuchie Flood Action Group

A quick reminder for all those people affected or at risk from the recent flooding events throughout the village; the next Freuchie Community Council meeting is tomorrow (Wed) evening and is open for everyone to attend. Normal community council business begins at 7:30pm. We’re expecting to have quite a chat surrounding the events of the 1st November.

Technorati Tags: flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council

With a great deal of effort and more than a little luck Freuchie survived the very heavy rainfall that fell on the East of Scotland on Sunday. The small flood improvement measures we have already made since the 2008 floods, the help of many people from the community to manage flood water, the early assistance of Fife Council and the heroic efforts of Fife Fire & Rescue Service all added up to saving our village from a repeat of the devastating 2008 floods.

Freuchie Flood Action Group is aware of many areas that were being monitored and at least two location where active flood protection and prevention works were being carried out. We would have liked to have been out and about doing more observations but our time was consumed fighting back the flood waters in areas known to be at high risk.

Let’s take a whirlwind tour of these area and highlight the key points.

ALBANY CRESCENT
The run-off from the fields to the south of Albany Crescent was putting the homes in this part of the village at risk of flooding. Only the prompt action of local residents who dug appropriate drainage channels, and then travelled to Cupar to collect and deploy sandbags, ensured that properties – many of them occupied by elderly and vulnerable individuals – survived unscathed despite the 18 inch-deep water in the streets.

Patrick Laughlin, Chairman of Freuchie Community Council, was amongst those helping at this location, and was also out and about during the afternoon observing the nature and sequence of flooding throughout the village. He said afterwards that the day’s events had served to highlight that flooding was an issue which now threatened to affect almost every part of Freuchie. At Albany Crescent, the impromptu dams which were built to divert water away from the most-threatened properties were effective and necessary, but had the side effect of directing the waters down other streets previously felt to be risk-free.

Please contact us if you have photographs of the flood waters in this area of the village.

FREUCHIE DEN
No reports as yet of property flooding up Freuchie Den. Work was carried out last year to reduce the risk of flooding and it would appear to have been successful. 

 
Photos: Farm road to Freuchie Den and bridge downstream 

The information and photographs clearly show an area that still requires further flood prevention work to lessen the existing flood risk.

GREEN TREE BRAE
Alarmingly high water levels were observed further downstream on Freuchie Burn. A usually babbling brook type flow had turned into a torrent that was engulfing land adjacent to the burn banks. Flood alarms installed by residents were activated warning of a danger of flooding.

  Photos: Freuchie Burn at Green Tree Brae

The burn rose to such a height that it would have been flowing over the walkway of the old bridge, had it still be there, putting the homes at the bottom of Green Tree Brae at high risk of flooding. Thankfully the unsafe bridge was removed earlier this year and the gap in the wall bricked up as a flood prevention measure.

FREUCHIE MILL
Last and certainly not least! Freuchie Mill would likely have flooded to property damaging levels if we had seen another hour of rain.  The culvert would have been overtopped by the Millwaters Burn if the rain had not gone off when it did. At its height the burn water was starting to lap onto the top of the gabion baskets. Unfortunately we were too busy fighting the flood to take photographs at that moment!

 
Photos: Freuchie Mill culvert inlet end one hour before peak flows and the diversion pipe that was reinstated

Thankfully our request for the diversion pipe to be used, Fife Council’s work to inspect the pipe along its length and Kingdom Housing’s restoration work have proven to be a life saver on this occasion. The diversion pipe was operating at full bore and really made all the difference during this weather event.

 
Photos: Freuchie Mill culvert outlet one hour before peak flow and during the peak when flooding was starting to occur

On this occasion, the greatest flow of flood water into Freuchie Mill came down from the Chicken Farm and then cascaded down Freuchie Mill Road, joining in with the flood waters already coming down the road. The drainage, or should that be lack of drainage, requires immediate action along with the correction of the incorrect road camber that brings nearly all the run off water down into Freuchie Mill. The flooding on the road resulted in a car parked in one of the Freuchie Mill Road cottages being written off.

Photos: Flooding begins with run off from Freuchie Mill Road 

Fife Fire & Rescue Service arrived at a timely moment to help with the flood protection work. We requested they deploy a pressurised fire hose across Freuchie Mill Road as a damming measure to stem the flow of flood waters. Pumping out operations began swiftly thereafter to keep the water to a very minimal level.

 
Photos: Fife Fire & Rescue Service arrives onsite 

It quickly became apparent the fire hose wouldn’t be enough by itself thus a frantic search began to find materials to dam off the road. A source of rocks and bricks was found allowing the firemen, residents and Andy Walls of Kingdom Housing to start the construction of a two tier dam structure that took the majority of the flood waters down the side of the bridge and into the stream downstream of Freuchie Mill. A big thanks to all the residents from surrounding properties, most of whom weren’t under threat of flooding, but still came out in cold and wet condition to lend a hand – we couldn’t have done it without you. 

 
 
Photos: Dam construction on Freuchie Mill Road

Towards the end of the flood event a few of the private homes in Freuchie Mill started to see the flood waters rising. This was caused by the burn waters that come down through Freuchie Mill House and run underground around the back of the the west side private houses having no where to drain off to and therefore bursting through the back gardens. Most of these houses already had flood protection measures in place  to prevent the majority of the dirty flood water entering the underfloor void. Once again the firemen jumped into action and started to pump out the areas now being flooded. Unfortunately there was damage done by this phase of the flood: holes in gardens, subsidence of driveways and loss of property from garden sheds and bike storage units. The losses will run into hundreds of pounds to repair and replace the flood damaged items, but it could have been so much more!

Photos: Flood water starts to threaten houses in Freuchie Mill

Just as in previous flood events, Fife Fire & Rescue Service personnel were magnificent and we cannot thank them enough for their hard work, professionalism and skill in dealing with the flood waters. Only one fire appliance was required to keep the flood water level at a minimum, although it took additional personnel on the ground to win the day. The Fire Service prevented £500,000 of flood damage with the related loss of four social housing units and eight private homes for six months whilst recovery and restoration work took place.

Fife Council must also be thanked for dispatching sandbags out to us. The personnel manning the operation were working under enormous pressure and unbelievable demands.

The small flood protection measures already taken substantially improved our chances of surviving extreme weather. There are other small measures that can now be taken to make further improvements without substantial capital spend. We will be working to implement these as quickly as possible.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Climatologists and other weather professionals are predicting extreme weather events will be more frequent and intense over the coming years. Every near miss allows us to better understand the flood sequence and the flood protection improvements required to prevent future property damage and threat to life.

Please let us know if you have any photographs of flooding in Freuchie. Likewise get in touch if you know of any area of Freuchie under risk during this event that we aren’t yet aware about. The information we glean from every report and photograph improves our knowledge immensely.

Photos are courtesy of Ross Robertson, Ian Porter and John Thomson.

Technorati Tags: Albany Crescent, climatologists, East of Scotland, Fife, Fife Council, Fife Fire & Rescue Service, flood, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council, Freuchie Den, Freuchie Mill, Green Tree Brae, Scotland

Freuchie Community Council has issued a leaflet to everyone in Freuchie with information on the “Community Development Body” proposed for the village. Hopefully no one got missed in Freuchie.

They are looking for people to take this proposal forward, to build the business structure and to be involved in the delivery of sustainable community projects. A free workshop session, run by the Development Trust Association, has been organised for 6:30pm on Wednesday 29th July at Freuchie Cricket Club. Please fill in the tear off slip on the leaflet if you wish to find out more about the training and how you can participate in bring this body to life.

Technorati Tags: Development Trust Association, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council, Freuchie Cricket Club