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.

With the last of the crops in fields around Freuchie being harvested, the impact of surface water run-off will become more significant over the coming month.

Here’s hoping for a dry autumn and winter.

This isn’t exactly a flood related post but it is important news for Freuchie next month.

Patrick Laughlin, Secretary of Freuchie Community Council, has sought clarification about the ongoing gas works currently underway in Freuchie. A Scottish Gas Networks spokesperson informed him of the following works:

Week commencing 19 Sept – traffic will not be allowed to enter East End from the A92 – all access to Freuchie from the A92 will be via the garden centre crossroads/Kettle Road. (That will be a good test for the traffic calming measures!!!)

Week commencing 26 Sept – this is more awkward for residents of Freuchie Mill Road and Freuchie Mill. There will be no vehicular access between Freuchie Mill Road and the A92 – meaning that residents will have to head east to the A914 for all their vehicular journeys.

The gas works will also take place on the A92 itself, at the Cross Keys crossroads, during this fortnight. But half of the road will remain open at all times..

Patrick further commented:

Scotland Gas Networks say they are in full and ongoing dialogue with both BEAR Scotland and Fife Council about these works and how they are signposted. All the agencies see the A92 closure at Eden Bridge as the ideal time to do the works at Cross Keys junction and you can understand their logic. Providing their signposting is good, the disruption should not be too great.

Please drive extra carefully and slowly at the traffic calming measures while these works are ongoing. Most of us will have had near misses or scary moments while negotiating the chicanes. Even Freuchie Primary School kids brought this up as an important issue at one of their recent annual presentations to Freuchie Community Council.

PROBLEMS?

First time commenters will have their comment sent for moderation – sorry for the inconvenience. One of our admins will approve the comment ASAP.

If you find you have a problem making a comment then feel free to send us a message using our Contact Us form. We will manually add the comment on your behalf.

Just received an email from the Chair of Cockermouth Flood Action Group:

Hi, I’m chair of Cockermouth Flood Action Group. Just wanted to say we are thinking about you, hope the water abates soon and keep up good work.

The lovely sentiment helps to brightens the day here in Freuchie.

FFAG hopes all is well in Cockermouth. We all remember the horrific scenes on our television screens when Cockermouth was devastated by flooding and the sad loss of PC Bill Barker while performing his duties in nearby Workington.

Have a look at the Cockermouth Flood Action Group website. They are doing a grand job.

Approximately 40mm of rainfall was recorded by the Freuchie Mill weather station from 9am on the 10th until 9am this morning (11th).

Image: Recent daily rainfall totals

This volume of rainfall will have fully saturated the ground thereby increasing the risk of flooding over the next few days as rain continues to fall.

A concerned citizen made a call to the SEPA Floodline service to inquire about the Freuchie area, the call handler recommended they visit the FFAG website for the most up to date information.

A fabulous endorsement that recognising all our hard work.

The Courier has written up an excellent news article regarding the recent floodgate fixture and fitting issue here in Freuchie – see page 4.

Thankfully the article is now a cautionary tale as the floodgates were returned last night.

Once again we are indebted to Craig at The Courier for showing such support for flooding issues.

Scary rain is heading our way by Wednesday, potentially lasting into next week.

Weather forecast data for Freuchie from the Norwegian Weather Service

Fingers crossed the weathermen have it wrong.

The cumulative result of the rainfall this week past and the forecast rainfall, if repeated across Scotland, will undoubtedly and sadly result in flooding throughout Scotland.  Our experience of past flood events in Freuchie suggests these daily rainfall totals will see watercourse levels rising to levels where we will be closely monitoring the Freuchie and Pittilock Burns.

Be prepared and keep an eye on the FFAG web resources for information as the weather patterns evolve over the coming days.

The Courier has just published an article on the flooding which affected so much of Scotland and North East England. Check it out here.

Thankfully Freuchie only had about 26mm of rainfall, most of which was light, over the weekend.

It is time for flood hit communities to check your area is recognised as an area at risk from flooding.

SEPA is conducting the following consultation:

Flooding in Scotland: A consultation on Potentially Vulnerable Areas and Local Plan Districts, seeks your views on how the National Flood Risk Assessment identifies areas for flood risk management planning and was launched by the Minister for the Environment, Stewart Stevenson, at the Braid Burn in Edinburgh. Your responses will help us to identify those areas in Scotland where public bodies should focus their efforts.

The consultation can be found here.

Freuchie belongs to the “Tay Estuary and Montrose Basin” Local Plan District.