Work has been conducted to reduce the risk of flooding to homes and farmland at Freuchie.
BEAR Scotland and local businesses and landowners have joined forces to try to prevent the Freuchie Burn breaking its banks in heavy rainfall.
The village has been hit hard by flooding in the past but it is hoped that the project, including the removal of sediment from a culvert under the A92 last Thursday and Friday by BEAR Scotland, will protect it in future.
Local councillor David MacDiarmid said 10 months of meetings with land owners and agencies such as SEPA and Scottish Water had led to action being taken.
He said: “BEAR Scotland was on site, as agreed, to jet out the culvert that, when blocked, becomes a flooding issue to local residents and prime farming land annually.
“It is encouraging in these austere times that we can bring a dozen or so folk on-site to hammer out a solution to the flooding problems in this part of Freuchie and then keep them all on board as we work through the phases of clearing the vegetation and debris to the eastern side to where we are today, jetting the culvert.
“The next phase is the cutting back of heavy vegetation and removing the silt in the burn to the west of the culvert on the A92, work which will be completed by a local farmer.”
He also said BEAR Scotland would conduct an internal inspection of the culvert to ensure a repair carried out four years ago remained in good condition and that he would request annual jetting of the culvert.
A BEAR Scotland spokesperson said: “We’ve been working as part of a joint initiative with local landowners, businesses and Cllr McDiarmid to improve the drainage of land next to the A92 near Freuchie.”
Over two days, she said, sediment had been removed using specialist machinery beneath the road.
“This work in combination with other efforts by the local landowners to clear and restore their ditches up and downstream from the structure should help alleviate the flooding to the field.”
A delegation from Freuchie, Falkland and Kettle flood action groups recently travelled to the Borders to see work being carried out on the Eddleston Water to protect Peebles from flooding and it is hoped similar schemes can be adopted in Fife.
