Households evacuated after rain causes landslip

● North-east coastal village being monitored

A landslip-damaged slope above an Aberdeenshire coastal village is being monitored after recent rain caused a temporary retaining wall to collapse.

Three households in Gardenstown were moved after the incident at Harbour Road – the only road giving access to the lower part of the village.

Police officers and officials from Aberdeenshire Council spent Tuesday night at the scene.

The lower half of the village has been partially cut off since the first landslip at the end of November, with the road only open for a few hours at a time to allow supervised access.

Residents have voiced frustration at the length of time it has taken to fix the problem.

The council has said repairs could cost over £1 million.

Exploratory work to find a solution began last month but no timescale has been given for the work.

Yesterday the Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued seven flood alerts warnings for Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City, Dundee and Angus, Edinburgh and the Lothians, Fife, Scottish Borders, Tayside and West Central Scotland.

A council spokesman said: “We have had engineers on site through the night monitoring the landslip, and despite heavy rain there has been no obvious significant deterioration.

“A temporary wall built by us to contain falling debris from the initial slip in November has collapsed under the weight of loose material and we have had to extend the cordon around the closed road in the interest of safety.

“Our geotechnical consultants, currently working on site to look at long term solutions, will give us an updated expert view on the risk to allow us to take further decisions.

“This will include whether or not the temporary road openings which have been taking place will still go ahead.”

The spokesman added: “Last night three households were offered advice in terms of their safety. We will also share our technical advice with them to allow them to consider their next steps.

“We are also continuing to ensure the emergency services are informed in terms of any access they might require to the village.

“Roads colleagues have been carrying out minor maintenance around the village where they can this morning, unblocking gullies where necessary and allowing excess water to drain away as much as possible.”