Freuchie Flood Action Group

The Courier has a short article on page five today about the Minister’s cancelled visit yesterday.

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The Courier has picked up on our praise for the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill on page  four of today’s newspaper.

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Both The Courier and the Fife Herald have picked up our “Oh No! Not Again!” blog post of last week.

The Fife Herald version is available here.

Our thanks again to Liz Rougvie of the Fife Herald and Gordon Berry of The Courier for running our story.

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In The Courier on Saturday, Derek Crowe, Senior Manager of Roads & Engineering Services for Fife Council, was quoted as saying:

“In addition, we have been working in partnership with Kingdom Homes who have reinstated the collapsed culvert outlet-garden area affected by the previous flooding.”

Whether Mr Crowe has been misquoted or there has been a miscommunication between Fife Council and Kingdom Housing, the simple fact remains that the reinstatement work has not yet been started. The only work carried out so far was many months ago to ensure the site was safe and secure for residents and other members of the community.

Photos: Freuchie Mill culvert outlet as of 19th January

Perhaps the follow-up article in this week’s Courier will clear up the confusion.

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We’ve had a busy week in the media thanks once again to the Fife Herald and The Courier: one mention in the Fife Herald and two in The Courier.

Both newspapers focused on our participation in the launch event for the Scottish Flood Forum and the meeting of Freuchie Flood Action Group committee members with Mr Mike Russell MSP, Minister for the Environment and his department officials.

They also highlighted the ministers acceptance of a visit to Freuchie in the new year. We’ll keep you informed of progress with the ministers visit as developments and plans are made.

Thanks go to Liz Rougvie of the Fife Herald and Cheryl Wood of The Courier for their continued interest in our plights and more especially their support.

References
Fife Herald, page 5, 14/11/08 – Full story here
The Courier, page 5, 11/11/08
The Courier, page 4, 14/11/08

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The Courier has today reported on the launch of the Scottish Flood Forum by Mike Russell MSP, Minister for the Environment and attended by members of Freuchie Flood Action Group on Monday.

However, unlike so many other media outlets that simply regurgitated the press release put out by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Flood Forum, The Courier reporter sought out our view on this important development.

A little taster from the article:

Chairman John Thomson later told The Courier he hoped the forum would bring political pressure to bear, pushing local authorities to do more to help.

He said, "The Scottish Government has given its full backing for this forum and as that filters down to local authority level hopefully we will see a lot more being done.

During the launch event on Monday, Neil Duff and John Thomson took the opportunity to network with other flood survivors. Whilst speaking with one of the flood affect Broxburn residents it became apparent that West Lothian Council demonstrated a duty of care over and above any statutory obligation. One resident told of them even coming along to wash the mud from the stone chips in his driveway and footpath. Further, he only had praise and pride in the response shown by council officials and workers post flood.

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Once again we need to thank The Courier and Fife Herald for continuing to feature Freuchie Flood Action Group in their news content this week.

Tuesday saw us in print responding to the generous offer from Network Rail to contribute towards a full scale hydrology study for Freuchie. We look forward to hearing how the talks between Fife Council and Network Rail progress over the coming weeks and months. It was heartening to see Mr Moodie from Fife Council indicating that both Falkland and Freuchie were now in line for a full hydrology study:

The Falkland and Freuchie application will be put on a list for Fife and will be prioritised with all other areas.

It may be a year or so before we get round to Freuchie.

- Jim Moodie of Fife Council – Page 5 – The Courier – Tue 21st Oct 2008

However, it would be even more welcome to see this happening quicker than the estimated "year or so".

The call by Freuchie Flood Action Group for £1m to fund a proper flood prevention scheme, as announced by Vice Chairman Jim Mullen, got a mention here on the Fife Today website.

This time last week we blogged about the Culvert Entrance Maintenance completed by local resident Duncan Buchanan and Neil Duff, which got featured by Liz Rougvie on page 11 of the Fife Herald. The story was illustrated by a photo taken of Duncan and Neil hard at work. A wider discussion on the Fife Structure Plan was also discussed, which demonstrated a greater flood awareness by local politicians and officials in future planning considerations. The online version of the story is here.

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Check out page four of The Courier today as our own Willy Harrison of Freuchie Mill is pictured in his wheelchair while telling us about his car insurance woes. We’re hoping to get a video interview with Wullie in the next day or two where all will become clear!

The nice folk over at the Fife Herald have also been on the telephone so expect to see something in Friday’s newspaper from Liz Rougvie.

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