Cupar flooding: councillor’s frustrations at lack of clarity over flood planning

The Fife town was severely affected by flooding from Storm Garrit in December. On Thursday, Councillor Margaret Kennedy (Cupar and District, Lib-Dem) pushed Fifde Council's Labour administration for a clear timeline and approach to prevent future problems.

Cllr Kennedy called for a “whole system approach” to local flood mitigation and she highlighted concerns about a lack of reassurances in relation to council processes, such as drain cleaning.

“The matter which is of greatest frustration has been the lack of intuitive responses in relation to drain cleaning, grating checks and clearing, and street sweeping,” she said. “Very often when something goes wrong it can be traced back to unintended consequences which could have been avoided if we had taken a more broad and inclusive approach to the application of our activities such as traffic management engineering installations or street sweeping.”

Council Leader David Ross (Labour) raised the issue of Cupar flooding in his leader’s report claiming that in the short term, council officers will be “taking steps to deploy flood pods in the area” and providing “greater assurance in terms of keeping grates and gullies clear.”

“The previous flood study will be reviewed and updated as a basis for longer term preventative work,” the report stated.

“I have [also] asked officers to consider powers available to the council as regards dredging of the Eden further downstream and whether this is likely to improve the situation.”

Cllr Kennedy believes that the flood study reassessment could provide some of the answers and solutions that residents in Cupar are waiting to see. She’s therefore pushing for clarity about the actions and timeline of that reassessment.

Cllr Ross responded: “All I can say is that this matter is high up the agenda for the executive director of place. We are serious about trying to address some of these problems although there is no immediate or quick solution to them.”