Council response to flooding 30 December

This article is more than 1 year old

Heavy rain during Friday 30 December led to flooding in many parts of Fife.

Roads Maintenance Service Manager, Bill Liddle said: “Our teams were out and about during last night and throughout the day, deploying sandbags, clearing blockages, setting up road closures and warning signs, and working with emergency services to help with pumping and barricades.

“As of 3:30pm we have seven roads closed across Fife with others passable with care. Some individual properties have been affected by flood water and more issues may occur if nearby water courses overflow.

“We monitor water levels in rivers and burns and we issued sandbags to properties known to be at risk, for example in Cardenden where the Den Burn rose significantly.

“Fife is a huge, mainly rural area. We have a rolling work programme of drain and gully clearing - visiting known hotspots more frequently than others - but mud and vegetation builds up very quickly. Unfortunately no existing drainage systems can cope with the huge quantities of water running off fields or spilling from burst rivers during episodes like this.

“As we know, bouts of severe weather are becoming more frequent and this was another heavy downpour in a relatively short space of time. While we’re investing in infrastructure work to mitigate the effects of climate change and the increased risk of flooding, it’s inevitable that we will repeatedly see disruption of this nature.”

There's general advice online for householders at www.fife.gov.uk/flooding