By Chris Hardy

A RALLY in Brechin at the weekend called for the town to put all its weight behind a campaign demanding action to alleviate the risk of flooding.

While Saturday’s campaign march along the River Street bank of the South Esk will be followed with a petition to Angus Council—which will publish an updated report this week—politicians and councillors were reminded of the misery caused by flooding and the threat hanging over homes.

River Street resident Roger Seaman recalled the distress of his family, made homeless for seven months during the 2002 flood, since when his home insurers have demanded a £4000 excess.

He had been dismayed at the difficulties he had experienced in trying to get responses from politicians, councillors and agencies after the flood.

He said it was offensive to describe the proposed £9 million anti-flood scheme to cope with a once-in-200 year flood as “gold-plated.”

“It is what insurance companies insist on—it would be money well spent,” he said.

Bill Sturrock, chairman of Brechin and District Business Association who organised the rally, said it was an attempt to bring the issue back into the spotlight as lack of action would have a serious impact on all the businesses in the town as well as people living in River Street.

He said, “We are not against any flood scheme which is achievable, we are not against the flood schemes being suggested by other parties or individuals… we are against the delay which will occur in the creation of the proposed flood prevention scheme due to lack of funding.”

Mr Sturrock said there was no funding allocation in the financial plan of either the council or Scottish Government that would allow the £9 million scheme to be constructed in the foreseeable future.

He added, “All we are looking for is a low-cost, practical solution to be implemented until such time as funding for a complete scheme can be found.

“We need to do something to lessen the severity and prevent the majority of flooding events from impacting on the town.”

A possible step towards achieving that might be the removal of the gravel bank that has formed on the south side of the South Esk over the last 30-plus years and which in bygone years was regularly removed.

It was pointed out that there were gravel banks all down the river which used to be removed regularly but were allowed to build up and are now protected by environmental agencies.

Mr Sturrock said he believed the removal of the gravel bank would not stop the disaster flood happening but it would go a little way to reducing the overall levels of the river and may be enough to reduce the frequency of properties in this area being flooded.

“We acknowledge there are funding constraints but nonetheless we believe that the interest of the community must come first in a situation of this importance,” he said.

“We need to be realistic enough to recognise that whatever structural changes are made, including removal of the gravel bank, replacement of inferior drainage systems and construction of a flood defence wall, all of which has to be done with reference to the relevant agencies, these are not going to be done immediately.

“There are so many agencies with an interest in this matter that we have the apparent stalemate on any action being taken.”

He said the Brechin public, through the auspices of the Business Association, needed to look further into how to get the various bodies—the government, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Water and Angus Council—to work together to reduce the frequency of flooding and look sympathetically on the removal of the gravel bank.

Mr Sturrock concluded, “If what the business association is proposing can bring some improvement and make the lives of just a few people better, than it has to be worthwhile.”