‘We prioritised saving lives’ insists council in face of flood criticisms

Angus Council says its actions during last week’s flooding helped save lives following criticism from locals who claim they were left to fend for themselves.

Angus was among the areas hardest hit by the heavy rain which started last Thursday and peaked with torrential downpours throughout Friday.

In Brechin, there were claims that parts of the town’s multi-million-pound flood defence scheme had been left deactivated and only kicked into life when locals took matters into their own hands.

Angus Council has admitted that parts of the £16 million scheme failed. However, it said it “stands by its decisions” and its priority had been “to prevent the very real danger to the loss of life”.

Carer Kim Clark, 51, said she phoned the council on Friday morning pleading for the Brechin South Esk flood defence system to be activated. She says she was told the council did not expect it to flood.

She said: “We were left to our own devices.”

Chris Maguire, 59, said it was left to him and his daughter Inca to show a council staff member how to get more of the pumps in River Street working.

He said: “There’s a switchboard and the man didn’t know how to turn it on. Inca got him to press a button to get the pumps on... All they needed to do was arrive with the keys and turn the machine on, something me and my daughter did easily.”

Angus Council has admitted part of the automated system failed to kick into action, despite an inspection in August.

However, it said the defence system held, despite provisional reports that the water level was 33cm higher than in the record flood of 2015.

It said: “Had these defences not been in place, there would have been widespread and potentially dangerous flooding of an estimated 332 properties, beyond anything yet experienced by Brechin.”

The council said two of the three pump stations on River Street failed to start automatically when water was detected.

“As soon as this was identified, a council officer attended and the pumps were successfully started by that engineer at around 5pm on Friday,” it added.

Council officials said the challenge was “unprecedented” due to the level of rainfall over a wide area, making flooding “inevitable”.

It pointed to a number of factors showing the severity of the weather, including:

A severe flood warning for the South Esk in Brechin and Finavon and Tannadice – the highest level which warns of danger to life

The multi-agency Tayside Resilience Partnership declaring a “major incident” for Angus at 6pm on Friday

Areas such as Invermark seeing more rain in two days than typically for the whole of November.

The council said: “Under these unprecedented circumstances, it was inevitable that some areas across Angus would unfortunately flood.

“However, the absolute priority for Angus Council and its partners was to prevent the very real danger to the loss of life. This will always be the priority and the council stands by its decisions.”

Chief executive Margo Williamson paid tribute to staff, saying they had gone to great lengths to protect their communities.

She said: “Many of our staff came in from days off and worked through the night, even taking up new roles to support their own communities because of the difficulties in providing support to affected areas.

“I am immensely proud of the efforts of my colleagues and our partners.”

BATTLE: Kim Clark, of River Street, Brechin, tackles flooding as locals say they were left to fight for themselves. Picture by Mhairi Edwards.