A recent change of ownership of an at risk property in Freuchie has brought up an interesting issue which needed both legal and technical advice: when does a floodgate become a fixture and fitting?

FFAG takes the following stance on this matter:

A floodgate, or indeed any flood protection product, becomes a fixture and fitting when any part has to be permanently fixed to the building structure OR removal of any part would result in damage to the building.

Both our legal counsel and Paul Hendy of the Scottish Flood Forum has indicated this is a grey area of law, but they take a similar stance as to when a floodgate becomes a fixture and fitting.

The floodgate system was custom constructed onsite before being installed on specific door ways, with the guide rails of the system being sealed and screwed onto the door jambs. The fixed guide rails have not been unscrewed and removed, only the floodgate panels that hold back the flood waters have been taken.

It is slightly unbelievable someone, who themselves had been badly flooded, would wilfully remove critical components of the flood protection products to take to a new property where they would be utterly useless. This selfish action has put both this property and the neighbouring property at risk from flooding. Other local residents, with the same floodgate system, found it unbelievable that anyone would take away vital parts of the flood protection, especially when everyone is well aware of how critical they are for the prevention of complete ground floor destruction in a major flood event. 

Needless to say we have advised the new householder to consult with his own solicitor as a top priority. FFAG has also sent an email to the previous owner and Your Move in Cupar, who we believe were the selling agent, stating our position and making a request for the immediate return of the removable parts of the floodgate system.

UPDATE 10TH AUGUST
Confirmed with Your Move that our email had been received and appropriate action has been taken.
Fife Herald contacted FFAG for details and photo opportunity.

UPDATE 11TH AUGUST
SEPA issued Flood Alert.
Met Office issued Yellow then Amber Severe Weather Warning.
The Courier contacted FFAG for details and photo opportunity.
Freuchie Community Council shocked by this story at the regular monthly meeting.
Floodgate parts returned on an evening when flooding is a major concern.

Please feel free to comment with your opinion and thoughts.

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.

Technorati Tags: Fife, flood, Flood Risk Management, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Scottish Flood Forum, Scottish Government, SFF

The Scottish Flood Forum has released two new factsheets for flood victims and flood affected communities.

The factsheets can be found here.

Technorati Tags: factsheets, flood, Scottish Flood Forum

The Scottish Flood Forum is holding free Business Continuity Seminars down in the Borders.

More information and the booking form.

Technorati Tags: business continuity, flood, Scottish Flood Forum

The Scottish Flood Forum is aware there is a good deal of concern regarding protecting properties from flooding.

Paul Hendy of SFF commented,

My continued stance is each home owner has responsibility to protect their property and this is not necessarily the responsibility of the respective Council. In order to promote flood protection products and to let residents see them for themselves I have arranged a number of Flood Barrier Awareness Days to be held in various communities across Scotland.

Details of the Cupar event organised by Paul are below. The Scottish Flood Forum website also has details of other dates in Broxburn and Milnathort if you find you cannot make this one.

Date
Wed 30th Sept 2009

Time
3 – 7pm

Venue
The Cafe – County Buildings, St Catherine Street, Cupar, KY15 4TB

Event Description
The display and demonstration will be done by Rob Turner – who is an independent specialist in flood products. He does not work for any FD company but offers independent impartial advice on what is most suitable and affordable in respective properties.

Following the demonstration he will then arrange a no obligation and free of charge site survey / visit to any one who would like him to look at their properties.

The estimate will then be sent, but no follow up calls, or visits will be done. – Rob has many years in the building trade, and has extensive knowledge and understanding of the problems associated with protecting property.

It is anticipated once we know how many products are required the keenest prices will be negotiated to ensure that savings will be passed on to clients.

Technorati Tags: Broxburn, Cupar, flood, flood barriers, flood protection, flooding, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Milnathort, Paul Hendy, Rob Turner, Scottish Flood Forum

Cllr David MacDiarmid and John Thomson, Chairman of Freuchie Flood Action Group, attended a conference in Edinburgh yesterday that was suitably titled,

Holyrood ‘Sustainable flood risk management in Scotland:
implementation and key legislation’ conference

Photo: John Thomson, Chairman of Freuchie Flood Action Group, Paul Hendy of the Scottish Flood Forum and Cllr David MacDiarmid

Once again, John indicated to Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Minister of the Environment, that our invite to visit Freuchie was still open. It looks like our previous in person invite has been misplaced due to administrative changes in her team. An official invite is now winging its way towards Parliament. We’ll keep you updated on the Minister’s future visit.

Freuchie Flood Action Group would like to thank Freuchie Community Council for funding the place for our Chairman at this event.

Technorati Tags: David MacDiarmid, flooding, Holyrood, Freuchie, Freuchie Community Council, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Paul Hendy, Roseanna Cunningham, Scottish Flood Forum

Earlier this evening Alex Hill of the Met Office kindly joined us here in Freuchie to present a talk on Climate Change to Freuchie Flood Action Group. People travelled across from Falkland to join the residents of Freuchie in listening to a compelling case for climate change being a real man-made phenomenon. This has to be one of the best presentation so far to be delivered at a FFAG meeting.

John A Thomson, Chairman of Freuchie Flood Action Group commented:

We cannot thank Alex enough for venturing all the way to Freuchie to deliver this thought provoking talk. Even although it contained alarming facts and figures, we can take much from it in our ongoing campaign for flood prevention and protection for Freuchie. It was a privilege to be in the audience while he patiently took question after question,  from both sceptic and believer alike, responding with thought provoking answers that covered not only the scientific elements, but also the political, social and economic aspects of climate change.

It was also very welcome to see Paul Hendy of the Scottish Flood Forum turning up to support Alex and FFAG. Paul is doing sterling work in Scotland with flood affected communities… keep up the good work Paul.

Once again we have to give special mention to Ronnie at the Lomond Hills Hotel for the use of the facilities. We did try to increase Ronnie’s bar takings a little last night.

Alex has graciously made available a PDF version of his presentation for us to share. We heartedly recommend you take a look as it will be time well spent.

Presentation deck for the Climate Change Talk by Alex Hill of the Met Office

And finally…

Even although it has been 14 years since Alex was a TV weatherman, the star struck amongst the attendees insisted on getting their photo taken with him. Fame is indeed everlasting!

Photo: John A Thomson (Chair of FFAG), Alex Hill of the Met Office & Cllr David MacDiarmid

Technorati Tags: Alex Hill, climate change, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Lomond Hills Hotel, Met Office, Paul Hendy, Scottish Flood Forum

Just spotted this post over on the Scottish Flood Forum blog that mentions an upcoming free Business Flood Risk Seminar being held in Edinburgh on the 17th March 2009. 

More information is available from the SEPA website, which includes the latest programme information and the event booking form.

Registration is required for this event.

Technorati Tags: business flood risk, Edinburgh, flooding, Scottish Flood Forum, SEPA

The Scottish Flood Forum has a new blog, which is mainly the adventures and work of Paul Hendy, project manager of the Scottish Flood Forum. 

This will be an invaluable resource to observe the progress being made by Paul and to keep up to date with how Scotland is leading the way in dealing with flooding. You’ve certainly got a few eyes here in Freuchie reading about your escapades during your time in Scotland… keep up the good work Paul.

Technorati Tags: flooding, Freuchie, Paul Hendy, Scottish Flood Forum

Freuchie Flood Action Group was joined last Tuesday afternoon by representatives from the Scottish Flood Forum on a guided tour of the River Devon Natural Flood Management Demonstration Site by Mike Donaghy of the World Wildlife Fund (WFF).

 
Photo: (left to right) Paul Hendy of the Scottish Flood Forum; Mike Donaghy of the WWF; Neil Duff, John Thomson and Jim Mullen of FFAG; and Amanda Davies, also of the Scottish Flood Forum 

This WWF developed and managed project was established in 2003 to aid in the understanding of natural sustainable flood management processes and systems. It has previously been visited by members of the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee as part of their inquiry for the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill. A report of this visit is available from the Scottish Parliament website.

Shown below are some of the natural sustainable flood management techniques employed at this site: leaky barriers;  barriers to introduce meander into the river course; tree planting; and creation of bog land.

   
Photos: Various natural sustainable flood management techniques

Freuchie Flood Action Group would like to thank Mike Donaghy of the WWF for showing us around this interesting project and more specifically for giving us much food for thought for the future.

Mike Donaghy of the WWF is a world renowned expert on natural sustainable flood management and an advisor to the Scottish Government on flooding matters. He recently gave evidence on natural sustainable flood management to the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee and most certainly had a big influence on the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill currently working its way through the Scottish Parliament.

Technorati Tags: flooding, Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, natural sustainable flood management, River Devon, Scottish Flood Forum, WWF