No merry Christmas for flood ordeal pair
Out of home for 6 months
We have to spend Christmas away from our home and our things. We are living out of a suitcase Martin Patrick
A Perth couple flooded out of their property in August have spoken of their disappointment at not being able to spend Christmas at home.
Martin Patrick and Lorraine Ness were set to spend December 25 in temporary rented accommodation.
The couple were flooded out of their Wallace Crescent home in August for the third time.
Martin told the PA: “Lorraine and I are out of the house for six months.
“We will have to spend Christmas away from our home and all our things. We are living out of a suitcase.”
But Martin said he was trying to look forward rather than backwards and was doing everything he could to make his home safe “short of building a massive wall”.
There are no Christmas decorations up in their rented property just now.
He added: “It’s just a case of forgetting about it this year and hope next year is better.”
Martin and Lorraine hope to eventually return home in February or March once the work to make their home habitable again is completed.
But lockdown restrictions have added further problems.
Martin said: “I have done everything in my power to alleviate flooding in my house.”
The couple’s home was flooded in 2002, 2011 and then again in 2020.
In 2019 he spent £1000 on a return valve on the sewage pipe which he said was a “waste of money” as their home still got flooded in August 2020.
Martin has also invested in flood bricks, a water pump and is now planning on getting a flood barrier for his door.
Lorraine has lived on the street for over 50 years and says she never saw flooding until after 2000 when the Wallace Gait and Wallace Court developments were built.
Martin added: “It’s 100 per cent down to overdevelopment in our area. Our pipes coped until 2000.”
He said this latest flooding which saw four other neighbouring properties flooded was an “inevitable situation 20 years in the making.”
Perth City North SNP councillor John Rebbeck sympathised with the couple and is looking for some answers to what else can be done to help tackle the flooding issue here.
He said: “Martin and Lorraine are quite rightly scunnered at being flooded for the third time in recent years - as were their neighbours - and its incumbent upon PKC and Scottish Water to work together in order to find long term solutions to the problems here and in other areas of Perth.
“In the meantime, I’m grateful for the work that has been done in Wallace Crescent around clearing the drains but I would welcome further conversations to establish what else can be done in the short term to mitigate the issues before long term solutions can be found.”