COUNCILLORS PREPARE TO ADVANCE FLOOD PREVENTION PLANS

Councillors will be asked to approve the continued development of flood protection schemes for Whitesands, Langholm and Newton Stewart with  Scottish Government Capital funding of £1.536m allocated for this work.

Members of the Economy, Environment and Infrastructure committee approved the Local Flood Risk Management Plan earlier this year.  Within this plan, details of the various flood protection schemes in the region were approved.  This capital funding will now be used to take forward the development of these schemes.

In the first instance, the costs for repairing the Riverside road wall at Newton Stewart will be met through this funding.  A design has been completed, not simply to replace the existing wall like by like which would not be effective, but to enable the height to be increased to ensure it was part of the future flood protection scheme for the town. Additionally, these monies will be used to improvements to the Sparling Footbridge to raise it above peak flood levels.

In addition to the scheme specific capital funding, the Government made further flood protection monies available earlier this year.  For Dumfries and Galloway, the allocation is £172k.  Members of the committee will be asked to agree an estimated £100k of this funding to try to deliver a temporary flooding solution for Carsphairn.

Chairman of the Council’s Economy, Environment and Infrastructure committee said, “Over the last winter, communities across our region were battered by Storm Frank and Storm Desmond which resulted in some of the worst flooding experienced in recent years.  People had to leave their homes, properties were ruined and businesses were closed for weeks.  This Administration made a commitment to do something about flooding and work to provide solutions to some of our worst hit towns and villages.  We need to work to find solutions that will protect our vulnerable communities and provide confidence for local people.  A great deal of development work has already taken place and the committee will be asked to approve funding so that further development can be taken forward on these schemes.

“When the First Minister visited Newton Stewart in the summer, I emphasised that the Government needs to take a more flexible approach to meet local needs and to revisit the criteria for communities currently excluded from funding.  At present funding is only available from the Government for Potentially Vulnerable Areas, which have to have at least 50 properties at risk of flooding. This means that villages such as Carsphairn, where home owners and businesses were left devastated following the floods, are not eligible for Government funding.

“Despite this, our Council included Carsphairn in the recently published Solway Local Flood Risk Management Plan, and has continued to develop a study to find solutions.  Based on the outcomes of this work the design of scheme will be progressed. However, I believe it is important that we do all we can in the meantime to find a short-term solution for Carsphairn. A proposed temporary scheme is being developed and if councillors back the scheme and allocate £100,000 we would we hope to have the measures in place before the winter and thus providing some reassurance to the community.”