Flood plan is rejected

Jan 27 2009 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

SCOTTISH Government officers have scuppered plans to provide a flood defence scheme for part of Birnam which has been deluged by flood water on four occasions since 1993.

Plans had been drawn up to protect properties in Burnmouth Road, close to where the Inchewan Burn runs into the River Tay.

After the floods of 1993, a scheme involving construction of a flood defence wall was drawn up but then shelved as other flood prevention work took higher priority.

Subsequent flooding in 2002 and 2004 led consultants to conclude that the Birnam flood mitigation scheme would be economically justified, and a scheme costing £1.3 million was drawn up.

This proposal would have involved construction of a sheet pile defence wall along the lower reaches of the Inchewan Burn and for a short length of the River Tay bank and the removal of a private bridge across the burn.

But this scheme was found to fall far below Scottish Government criteria based on a benefit/cost ratio, so the council’s flood consultant was instructed to carry out a further review in a bid to reduce the cost and produce an economically viable scheme.

The revised scheme, approved by Perth and Kinross Council in October, 2007, slashed the cost for the flood defences to £436,000, and also raised the benefit/cost ratio to above the Scottish Government’s criteria.

Members of the council’s environment committee will be told tomorrow that when this amended scheme was put to the Scottish Government, it too was rejected “as it was not considered sufficiently robust.”

In a report to the committee, the council’s depute director for environment, Jim Valentine, states: “Even though the flood scheme is not economically viable, the council has continued to negotiate with the bridge owner in an effort to remove the bridge.

“As this would involve the loss of one private access to this property, compensation would be payable.

“Should this negotiation prove to be unsuccessful, the council will use its powers under the Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act in order to find a solution.”

Mr Valentine adds that, while the removal of the bridge would mitigate some of the localised flood from the Inchewan Burn, it would not protect Burnmouth Road properties from flood water backing up from the River Tay.