Flooding disruption
Relief teams come to aid
Heavy rain across Scotland on Friday caused significant disruption in east Perthshire.
A number of roads in the area were closed due to flooding, with local flood and resilience teams on hand to provide support following weather warnings for the region.
Among the roads that were closed over the course of Friday and Saturday were the A93 Blairgowrie to Perth road at Cargill, the B954 Alyth to Meigle road, the C423 Aberbothrie Road, and the A923 Blairgowrie to Coupar Angus road at Bendochy.
Many other roads in the region, including the Blairgowrie to Alyth road, were only passable with care.
And roadworks in Blairgowrie were suspended for the day as the diversion route was impassable because of flood water.
Blairgowrie and Rattray Community Council’s Resilience Team was called out to help residents in Schoolfield Road, Honeyberry and Back Row protect their homes against rising floodwater.
Three volunteers from the group worked with residents to deliver around 40 flood sacks to households in the area.
Community councillor Sam Stewart said: “We were called out on Friday to the Resilience Team’s container on Glenalmond Road at the top of Schoolfield Road and were able to work with residents to distribute a number of flood sacks that had recently been purchased thanks to funding from SSEN to members of the local community.
“We were in close contact with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service who were advising us on what to do and who were ready to assist should we have needed them to do so, but the water started to subside before that became necessary.
“We also checked on vulnerable residents in the area to ensure that they, and their properties, were safe.
“Conditions were fairly horrible on Friday and the flood water was very fast flowing but we understand that everyone managed to keep the water out of their homes, which is a huge relief.”
SNP Blairgowrie and Glens ward councillor Tom McEwan commented: “Heavy rain over a few days, resulting in the River Isla closing the A923, is not an unusual occurrence and leaving the town near cut-off is something we have dealt with in the past and will again.
“Keeping people safe and providing information on road conditions is at least one good use of social media, and it’s great to see many in our community thinking of others when these events occur.
“The local resilience team was again called into action, and volunteers who just recently helped out during the fire at the laundry did a great job supporting residents to protect their homes from flood waters that appear too much for the drain system in Rattray.
“A detailed flooding report is under way and will help provide good quality information on how the infrastructure can be improved – the quicker this report is completed and acted upon the better.
“The risk of flooding is something no-one should constantly fear and worry about.”
Conservative Blairgowrie and Glens councillor Caroline Shiers added: “I was in contact with officers on Thursday and through the day on Friday regarding the Rattray Burn and would thank Alan Findlay and Willie Mahoney for ensuring that teams were allocated to the area to monitor the burn, deliver sandbags and to ensure any works to alleviate flooding were taken.
“The community council resilience facility at the top of the Springfield Homes area also was opened and was a test of the facility.
“I have asked officers for a meeting between the community council and council staff to build the resilience efforts and hope this can be done quickly.
“The council has committed to a review of surface water issues across the Blairgowrie and Rattray area and I have asked for an update on this from officers.
“There is an ongoing issue with flooding on the road outside Rattray Primary and I have raised this again with Scottish Water.
“What is clear is that heavy rain, when we suffer days of rain in a short period of time, has a devastating impact and for those who have properties at risk it is a really worrying time.”
Cllr Shiers concluded: “I would like to thank all the Perth and Kinross Council and Tayside Contracts staff, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, volunteers and all others who were out in atrocious conditions responding to this weather event.”