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Plea for action to deal with flooding problem
FLOODING incidents in Ferryden are becoming so severe there are fears that high water levels could delay emergency vehicles answering a call-out.
Calling for the village’s flooding problem to be looked at again by Angus Council, community council chairman Gordon Brown said he is concerned that response times could be longer if vehicles have to negotiate deep water on Ferryden’s main street.
During recent spells of heavy rain Burnside Place and Ogilvie Terrace have become blocked and while one of the causes appears to be water pouring off the fields behind the village and down Craig Terrace, it can be aggravated at times of high tide.
Angus Council’s roads department was asked three years ago to reconsider a feasibility study first put forward in 2002 in the hope of preventing further flooding but at their meeting on Thursday night, community councillors said that little has been done to alleviate the problem.
Mr Brown said: “It just seems to be getting worse and worse and I’m becoming concerned that if there’s a medical emergency or any other kind of emergency in the village it could delay response times.
“It really needs to be looked at and the council should step in and look at it a lot more deeply. Is it because drains are blocked? Should we see about another drain being put in, or do we have to start looking at storm drains?”
In response to a question from Councillor Bill Duff, members confirmed that flooding is worse when it coincides with high tide, suggesting the problem is partly due to drainage in to the South Esk.
Mr Duff said: “The could be water not getting in to the harbour and when it’s high tide it backs up and makes it worse.
“I spoke to the roads department this week and their view is that water is coming off the fields and bringing down silt, which is blocking the drains. The roads also aren’t designed to deal with the worst cases of flooding, but if it’s getting worse we’ll need to get them to take a more fundamental look at the issues and it could be there needs to be some capital work done.”
Councillor David May also suggested that a site meeting be held with community councillors and roads department staff to try to pin down the exact causes.
He said: “I suggested to the head of roads that the maintenance engineer has a site meeting with residents, who could point out what some of the issues are, and comes up with an action plan. We had a meeting a couple of years ago about something similar but flooding is more frequent now.
“I came along when the flooding was at its worst and some people were still attempting to take cars along there and just got stuck.”
Members agreed a site meeting should be arranged and Councillor Paul Valentine suggested that, if part of the problem is the village’s drainage system, a representative of Scottish Water is also invited to attend.
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Weather for Montrose
Monday 20 May 2013
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Temperature: 7 C to 17 C
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