Agenda item

Questions for Elected Members.

Mr Jim Fraser, one of the Council’s Emergency Planning Officers, was in attendance to advise on the Council’s response to the flood damage caused by Storm Dennis at the weekend.   Mr Fraser explained that prior to Storm Dennis, Storm Kiera had caused 7ft snowdrifts in some parts of the higher ground in the Scottish Borders, and the ground was already very saturated.  Last Tuesday, the Met Office and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) issued an alert that Storm Dennis was anticipated to strike the Scottish Borders at the end of the week.   By Friday the Met Office had issued an amber warning for rain.  On Saturday there were 17 flood warnings issued across the Scottish Borders including for Jedburgh, Kelso, Newcastleton, Peebles, and Hawick.  The Council’s Emergency Bunker was opened and staffed by the Emergency Incident Team, including officers from Police Scotland, Housing Associations and the Fire and Rescue Service.    As the day went on, the Met Office issued three severe flood warnings.  The Council established rest centres at the Teviotdale Leisure Centre in Hawick and in Newcastleton for residents who might need to be evacuated. 

 2.2      Mr Fraser went on to explain, that the flooding had severely affected Newcastleton.  The Council had reacted quickly and by 0800 hrs on Sunday, had deployed staff, road sweepers and JCBs to tidy up the roads and footpaths in Newcastleton.    In response to questions, Mr Fraser advised that SEPA had acted correctly in their predictions and timings of their warnings.  However, the water levels did spike extremely quickly.  Regarding Saturday’s warning times he advised that the first warning for the River Teviot was issued at 1855 hrs, River Slitrig was 1856 hrs and Liddle Water was 1625 hrs, with another at 1900 hrs.   Regarding the support given by the emergency services, Mr Fraser advised that Police Scotland had declared a major incident in Newcastleton and had deployed, in addition to a number of local officers, five police vans from their operational reserve, including officers from Glasgow.  In addition, 30 coastguard personnel were mobilised, along with Fire and Rescue Service personnel and specialist Water Rescue Teams from both Galashiels and Carlisle. There was also a drop-in centre opened on Monday to offer support to local residents and this would remain open for most of the week.   With regard to the flooding at Bonchester Bridge, he explained that the Fire Service had attended as a rescue service and were unable to pump water out of affected properties until there was a certain level of water and they had somewhere to pump the water.  Mr Fraser went on to advise that SBC had a Flood Protection initiative and flood products were available to be purchased via a grant scheme; properties could be protected by installing these flood products.  Following Storms’ Desmond and Frank in 2016, between 200 to 300 flood gates were purchased by residents in the Scottish Borders.   Regarding the lack of communication response from the Emergency Bunker during the weekend, Mr Fraser explained that staff were in attendance but had been dealing with an extremely high number of calls from the emergency services for support, and from residents in Hawick, Newcastleton, Peebles, Kelso and Jedburgh.    The Chairman thanked Mr Fraser for his attendance and the update.