Freuchie Flood Action Group

The Freuchie Mill culvert webcam has been replaced and is now operational. An additional infra-red illuminator has been installed to improve image quality during the hours of darkness. Higher quality lenses with a shorter focal length (wider view) are on order for the webcams to improve the image quality further. The Freuchie Mill road camera will be operation when the new lens have arrive and been fitted to the replacement webcam.

It has been necessary to rig up a temporary access method while the software is being developed to handle not only the webcam images but also a water level monitoring, logging and flood warning alarm system. Hopefully this can all be done before the really nasty weather rolls in and people can go about their business knowing they can keep tabs on the culvert level and be warned when it is getting dangerously high.

Future posts will go into this in more detail as the flood alarm and monitoring system takes shape.

Technorati Tags: flood, Freuchie, Freuchie Mill, webcam

It has been two years since the flooding of various properties throughout Freuchie. Happily we’re not aware of any further major property damage caused by flooding over that period. However we did have the near miss event last year which threatened homes in Albany Crescent and Freuchie Mill.

We cannot be complacent in our campaign to bring flood prevention measures to Freuchie! Both Freuchie Flood Action Group and Freuchie Community Council are lobbying and working hard to make that happen. Our joint campaigning has already delivered some smaller measures to reduce flood risk, other measures are in the planning phase and we have a wish list of must happen sooner rather than later projects.

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

Freuchie Flood Action Group has just received video footage taken during the flood event in the early hours of the 13th August 2008.

Yet more graphic proof of why Kingdom Housing Association and the developers must ensure they get the flood prevention implementation correct on this site.

This new content will be sent off to Fife Council Development Services, Kingdom Housing Association and SEPA.

If you have trouble viewing the video try going directly to the video hosting website.

Technorati Tags: Fife Council, Fife Council Development Services, flood, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Kingdom Housing Association, SEPA

A follow-up letter from SEPA has maintained their objection to the proposed development at Broomfield Place.

To quote from their letter:

Thank you for your consultation letter of 5 July 2010. We maintain our objection to this planning application on the grounds of a lack of information in relation to flood risk. We will remove this objection if the issues detailed in Section 1 below are adequately addressed. However, it should be noted that an adequate solution to the flood risk issues at this site is likely to be difficult to achieve.

Advice for the planning authority

1. Flood risk

1.1 We maintain our objection to the proposed development on the grounds that it may place buildings and persons at flood risk contrary to Scottish Planning Policy and Planning Advice Note (PAN) 69 ‘Planning and Building Standards Advice on Flooding’.

 

1.2 In the event that the planning authority proposes to grant planning permission contrary to this advice on flood risk the application must be notified to the Scottish Ministers as per The Town and Country Planning (Notification of Applications) (Scotland) Direction 2009.

 

1.3 In previous correspondence dated 10 May 2010, we objected to this proposal and recommended that a flood risk assessment (FRA) be undertaken. An FRA carried out by McGregor McMahon has since been submitted and we can advise that on the 7 July 2010, SEPA met with McGregor McMahon to discuss the content of this in more detail.

 

1.4 The FRA clearly highlights that the site is at risk from flooding. A small watercourse which enters a culvert on Muir Road has in the past surcharged resulting in flood water flowing along Muir Road and down into Broomfield Place resulting in a number of houses being subjected to flooding. Within appendix F of the FRA, a number of photographs show the extent of flooding experienced in August 2008. This flood water derived from the upstream culvert eventually flows into the development site.

 

1.5 To mitigate this risk and to try and eliminate the flooding problems experienced by the existing properties on Muir Road and Broomfield Place, it is proposed to create a flood relief channel to the south of the site. The purpose of this channel is to capture any surcharged water from the culvert on Muir Road which would normally affect the above properties and proposed development site and divert it to an alternative watercourse to the east. Although this will decrease the risk of flooding to the developments on Broomfield Place and Muir Road, it will ultimately increase the risk of flooding to alternative areas, particularly the Freuchie Mill area which was severely affected by flooding in August 2008.

 

1.6 The proposal is therefore contrary to SPP as it will increase the risk of flooding to other areas. This was highlighted in our meeting with McGregor McMahon on 7 July 2010.

 

1.7 In light of the above, we maintain our objection to this proposal in relation to flood risk. We could only support the development if an alternative solution is proposed demonstrating that the development is located outwith the risk of flooding from the estimated 1 in 200 year flood event and will not increase the risk of flooding to neighbouring areas.

This advice is given without prejudice to any decision made on elements of the proposal regulated by us, which may take into account factors not considered at the planning stage.

It is heartening to see SEPA coming to the same conclusion as FFAG.

Read SEPA’s full response on the planning website:
http://planning.fife.gov.uk/online/caseFile.do?category=application&caseNo=10/00587/FULL

Technorati Tags: Broomfield Place, FFAG, flood, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group

Photos: Falkland flood event on the  21st July 2010

Freuchie may have escaped being flooded this week but our neighbours over in Falkland were once again at serious danger of property damage. It was only through the installation of effective flood protection products that a number of Falkland homes escaped destruction once again.

Water courses appear to be at full capacity, spilling over their banks and the bridge arches of bridges seem to be causing water to back up. The photos suggest slowing down the flow, holding more water upstream and storing water before it enters Falkland, either natural or in ponds, would be part of a longer term solution for Falkland. Doesn’t look like there will be a simple fix, but it may well be a good candidate for Natural Flood Management (NFM) techniques.

FFAG is attempting to find out more about the Falkland flood to understand if there are some common elements that both communities can come together to address.

The need for a Falkland and Freuchie flood study grows stronger with every passing flood event.

Technorati Tags: Falkland, flooding, Freuchie, NFM

Interesting daily rainfall graph for the 24 hour period ending at 9am this morning:

The Freuchie Mill weather station recorded 42.3mm of rain, with the highest rainfall rate of 28.8mm/hr occurring  at 4:25am.

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The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for Fife, but the Scotland wide advisory is far more accurate:

There is a moderate risk of severe weather affecting parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland. There is the potential for heavy, thundery rain to give totals in excess of 50 mm in places, with an associated risk of localised flooding.

SEPA has issued a Flood Watch:

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

Heavy rainfall is forecast this morning. High intensity rainfall may cause flooding on small watercourses, roads and in urbanised areas.

Freuchie has seen 38mm of rainfall in the last 6 hours with more rain to come throughout today. Condition couldn’t have been better over the last few months for Freuchie to be able to withstand such a deluge. However residents who invested in flood defences would be advised to have them on standby.

There are a number of gullies blocked in the village and Muirhead. FFAG will report these to Fife Council for maintenance.

Technorati Tags: Fife, Freuchie, Met Office, Muirhead, SEPA, weather

Almost 30mm of rain, over an inch in old money, fell on Freuchie in the last 24 hours. The interesting, or should that be concerning, period of rainfall was between 9pm and 10pm last night when the rain was falling at a max rate of 36mm per hour. Thankfully it only lasted for a brief period.

Sky and Freesat TV viewers probably noticed their receivers losing reception just before the downpour – a good indicator that the skies were full of moisture just ready to come down as torrential rainfall. However it is a real shame if it spoils your viewing enjoyment!

All this makes for an interesting daily cumulative rainfall graph.

 Click on the graph to see a high resolution version (opens in new window).

Luckily all the water courses were running very low or dry before the downpour, the fields are full of thirsty crops and our extended dry spell followed by some light rain over the last week has left the ground ready to soak up a good deal of the rainfall. 

This has been the first decent fall of rainfall for testing the drainage scheme installed at Freuchie Mill Road a few months ago by Fife Council. The new gullies are certainly making a difference to the surface water running down C24 / Freuchie Mill Road, water that would normally all flow into Freuchie Mill. Although this isn’t a test of the same scale as the November 2009 flood event, it does bring a good measure of reassurance that the scheme will make a big difference. Thanks go again to Cllr MacDiarmid and Transportation Services for all their hard work to get this installed in time for the “wet season”.

Technorati Tags: Fife Council, flood, flooding, Freesat, Freuchie, Freuchie Mill, Sky

The Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) is now available on the Fife Council Planning website for the proposed Broomfield Place / Millburn Place affordable housing development. Check it out here.

First off the community is disappointed that we weren’t consulted on the FRA, especially as FFAG had made a request for local consultation. As a community we have built up extensive knowledge of the local water courses and areas that flood since August 2008.

We’re also disappointed that little consideration appears to have been given to the flood risk downstream of the development, especially so at Freuchie Mill. The FRA does not appear to demonstrate a key SEPA and planning principle of not making flooding worse elsewhere.

There is also some contradiction between the information contained within this report and the Freuchie Mill report done last year. We’ll be taking this up with Fife Council to gain insight to the true state of flood risk.

Finally, the flood prevention scheme being proposed brings welcome protection to properties around about the development site, including Broomfield Place, Church Street, Millburn Place and The Feus, but it may put Fortharfield, Shiels Avenue and Freuchie Mill Road at higher risk from flooding and almost certainly will bring more frequent and/or intense flooding to Freuchie Mill.

A follow-up objection response from FFAG has been sent into Fife Council Development Services. Should appear on the planning application website in a day or so.

One final thought: two “studies” (term is used in its most generic sense) have now been completed for Freuchie and both have revealed areas at high risk from flooding. How many more times must Freuchie experience flooding before a full flood study is carried out?

Technorati Tags: Broomfield Place, Fife Council, FFAG, flood, flooding, Fortharfield, Freuchie, Freuchie Mill, Millburn Place, planning, SEPA, Shiels Avenue

Reading the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 doesn’t easily clear up all the timescales for delivery of the various steps required to comply with the Act and ultimately when it is liable to bring real world flood prevention and protection measures to fruition. Surely there must be an easier way to find out the deliverables timescale rather than reading through and deciphering the Act? Yes, there is now. The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act Annual Report to Parliament 2009 has recently been published on the Scottish Government website, a report that appears to provide some of the outstanding answers being sought by flood survivors.

Date: 2016

Milestone: Publish implementation plans for delivering all measures set out in local flood risk management plans.

Lead: Local authorities

It is slightly alarming to see it could take until 2016 before local authorities publish their implementation plans. Gulp! Freuchie will undoubtedly have been hit by more flooding before this happens.

The intention is to lay a second commencement order in 2010 to bring into force Part 4 and the remaining sections of Part 6. In commencing Part 4, regulations setting out the transitional arrangements for transfer from the current statutory process for Flood Protection Schemes under the 1961 Act to the new process set out in the FRM Act will also be laid.

Part 4 of the Act relates to local authority powers to manage flood risk. Basically the local authorities gain all manner of new and strengthened powers and responsibilities for flooding in 2010.

In response to the long standing concerns surrounding the existing statutory process for Flood Protection Schemes, we are keen to allow local authorities to utilise the benefits of the new system as early as possible and without the need to go through a lengthy and complex period of transition.

Provision has been made to deliver flood improvements in a more timely fashion, but this will depend on your local authority pushing things along. In the meantime we need to push ahead under the old legislation and transitional arrangements – basically the outgoing regime that is no longer fit for purpose.

From 1 April 2008, funding of flood protection and coast protection schemes is not identified separately but the previous ring-fenced grant provision of £42 million in 2007-08 is rolled up in the General Capital Grant which is distributed to local authorities as part of the 3-year local government finance settlement covering the period 2008-11. The decision to substantially reduce ring-fencing was welcomed by COSLA and local government, and had no impact on the level of capital grant funding available to them. For 2009-10, local government was provided with a general capital grant of £462.64 million. The Scottish Government is continuing to deliver on its commitment to increase local authorities’ share of the Scottish Budget.

The report skirts around the issue of whether there has been increased spending on flood prevention since the change from ring fencing of funds to the Single Outcome Agreement. Going forward, a major worry has to be the potential for underfunding of flooding at local authority level. Councillors may well decide flooding is not a priority as the austerity cuts start to bite. Flood affected communities will have to lobby very hard to ensure councillors don’t make it impossible for flood officers to resource flood prevention and protection projects. Let’s hope we don’t hear Anne Robinson muttering, “Flooding… you are the weakest link!”

The Scottish Flood Forum (SFF) was set up in October 2008, with funding from the Scottish Government and the feedback received, from local authorities, community councils and individuals who have been flooded, on the services provided by SFF is very positive.

Freuchie Flood Action Group has the highest praise for the hard work and advice of Paul Hendy from the Scottish Flood Forum (SFF). We were the first flood action group to work with the SFF, a partnership that ensured Freuchie was well known by everyone that matters in the world of flooding! The commitment outlined in the report to extend the services available from the SFF is fabulous news for flood affected communities.

Elsewhere in the report, ongoing research and projects using Natural Flood Management (NFM) are mentioned. Developments in the flood warning service are welcome, but only become useful in Fife once the projects are rolled out Scotland wide.  The changes in areas of responsibility for the local authorities, Scottish Water, SEPA and other stakeholders are touched upon. A selection of large capital flood projects throughout Scotland are dealt with, but it is interesting to note the lack of information on any Fife projects currently underway!

Flood action groups and flood survivors will take a mixed bag from this report. In general it demonstrates good progress in dealing with flooding in Scotland.

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