Angus Council says its actions during last week’s flooding helped to save lives — following criticism from locals who claimed they were left on their own to defend their properties from the deluge.
Angus was among the areas of Scotland hardest hit by the heavy rain which started on Thursday and peaked with torrential downpours throughout Friday.
In Brechin, there were claims that parts of the town’s multi-million-pound flood defence scheme had been left deactivated — and only kicked into life when locals took matters into their own hands.
Angus Council has admitted that parts of the £16 million scheme failed. However, it said it “stands by its decisions” overall — and its priority had been “to prevent the very real danger to the loss of life”.
What did locals claim?
Carer Kim Clark, 51, said she phoned the council on Friday morning pleading for the Brechin South Esk flood defence system to be activated. She claims she was told the council did not expect it to flood.
She said: “We were left to our own devices.”
Chris Maguire, 59, said it was left to him and his daughter Inca to show a council staff member how to get more of the pumps in River Street working.
He said: “There’s a switchboard and the man didn’t know how to turn it on. Inca got him to press a button to get the pumps on… All they needed to do was arrive with the keys and turn the machine on, something me and my daughter did easily.”
What is the council’s response?
Angus Council has admitted part of the automated system failed to kick into action, despite an inspection as recently as August.
However, it said the defence system did hold despite provisional reports saying the water level was 33cm higher than during the record flooding of 2015.
It said: “Had these defences not been in place, there would have been widespread and potentially dangerous flooding of an estimated 332 properties, beyond anything yet experienced by Brechin.”
The council said two of the three pump stations on River Street failed to start automatically when water was detected.
“As soon as this was identified, a council officer attended, and the pumps were successfully started by that engineer at around 5pm on Friday,” it added.
How serious was the flooding?
The council said the challenge was “unprecedented” because of how much rain fell over such a wide area over a prolonged period. It said this made some flooding “inevitable” and it had been forced to prioritise protecting lives.
If you want to know how close the flood water came to the top of the flood defences in Brechin, then the answer is very! pic.twitter.com/KXGvsjb45l
— Angus Council (@AngusCouncil) November 19, 2022
It pointed to a number of factors showing the severity of the weather, including:
- A severe flood warning for the South Esk in Brechin and Finavon and Tannadice — the highest level which warns of danger to life.
- The multi-agency Tayside Resilience Partnership2 declaring a “major incident” for Angus at 6pm on Friday.
- Areas such as Invermark seeing more rain in two days than they would typically see in the whole of November.
The council said: “Under these unprecedented circumstances, it was inevitable that some areas across Angus would unfortunately flood.
“However, the absolute priority for Angus Council and its partners was to prevent the very real danger to the loss of life. This will always be the priority and the council stands by its decisions.”
Praise for council staff
Angus Council’s chief executive, Margo Williamson, paid tribute to the efforts of staff, saying they had gone to great lengths to protect their communities.
She said: “Many of our staff came in from holidays and days off and worked through the night, even taking up new roles to support their own communities because of the difficulties in providing support to affected areas. I am immensely proud of the efforts of my colleagues and our partners.”
It's not just people we rescue in Angus!
Angus Council's Animal Welfare Officer worked with a joint team from Police Moutain Resce Teams and the volunteers of Tayside Mountain Rescue Team to save sheep trapped in flood water near Forfar. pic.twitter.com/CaJLotLEJW
— Angus Council (@AngusCouncil) November 19, 2022
Council leader Beth Whiteside said: “Anyone who was anywhere in Angus on Friday can be in little doubt that the challenges faced by responders was huge. Sadly, and despite best efforts, it was impossible to prevent a small number of properties being flooded. While this is terrible for those households, it could have been so much worse.”
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