Call for council to fix private land which causes floods for Dalgety Bay homeowners

Conservative group leader Dave Dempsey says residents of Lade Braes in the southern town are being plagued with flooding linked to poor maintenance of Longhill Park, upstream of the homes.

The park, like much of Dalgety Bay, is privately owned – in this case by housebuilder Barratt Homes – and frequently floods during spells of heavy weather.

Under what is widely thought to be a pre-existing agreement with the then-Dunfermline District Council, Barratt takes no responsibility for maintaining the land, delegating this responsibility to the local authority.

However, the council is limited in the work it can carry out because the park remains in non-public hands – and because of an ever-shrinking grounds maintenance budget.

On Wednesday, Cllr Dempsey tabled a motion noting the ongoing issues in Lade Braes and instructed officers to investigate what could be done in the near future to help residents.

The councillor also asked for an update on a formal policy on the wider issue of using public funds to maintain private lands – something he has wanted for around two years.

He said: “It would be helpful for the committee to learn where this has gone to as this appears to have disappeared into the fog.”

Cllr Dempsey was backed by fellow area councillor, David Barratt – who was at pains to stress that he was no relation to the housebuilder.

The SNP councillor said: “It all seems extremely unfair that on top of the taxpayer paying for the upkeep of private land we are prevented from managing it in a way that supports our communities as well.

“We need to hold Barratt Homes to account. The bureaucracy is a significant part of the problem – they are quite a difficult organisation to actually engage with.”

West Fife and Coastal Villages Labour Councillor Bobby Clelland also signalled his support for clarity on the situation.

He asked: “If you have a large area of land not owned by the council and the owners are being negligent can we force the owners to take responsibility rather than the council spending money?

“It seems strange the owners don’t take responsibility for it.”

Alastair Mutch, area services manager for South West Fife, acknowledged that the relationship between landowners in Dalgety Bay and the council needed to be stated in black and white.

He said: “Barratt Homes are happy for us to do anything we want provided we don’t build multi-storey flats on what is technically their land.

“All the land (in Dalgety Bay) is owned by developers – it’s not like a normal town because it has been developed in a strange way. We need to formalise the situation.”

The committee agreed to pass Cllr Dempsey’s motion and a report will be delivered on Lade Braes by the next meeting in February.