Thurso flooding is an 'emergency' issue – councillors push local authority to make drain clearance a priority
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Thurso councillors have asked the local authority to treat the ongoing problem of town centre flooding as an "emergency" issue and held a special meeting on Friday to tackle the issue.
The town was hit by a flash flood the previous Friday, August 11, that led to various local businesses being affected by a huge ingress of water that travelled down Olrig Street and onto Traill Street.
Matthew Reiss, an independent councillor for Thurso and Northwest Caithness, highlighted comments from fellow ward councillor Ron Gunn in a public post on social media and said: "We have asked that the town centre flooding be treated as an emergency to allow overtime working to clear the blocked drains but at present this request has been unsuccessful.
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"We will keep pushing for this basic maintenance. In my opinion, the town centre being flooded twice should be treated as an emergency, to allow overtime payments."
Ron Gunn posted on Facebook on Friday – exactly one week after the last major flood – in which he stated: "Following the recent flooding event in Thurso I asked for a special meeting with our local roads department, this took place today."
After outlining some of the reports and surveys that have been done over the last few years to look into the issue, the councillor asked what actions, if any, were then taken and believes that said reports "should be looked at as one" to gain a better overall picture of the main problems.
"The plan would be to identify where the problems actually exist, we know where the water collects but can it be diverted before that or taken away more efficiently? There is a worrying problem with the main drain in Manson's Lane that takes the water to the river and that needs to be further investigated and a solution suggested. Probably an expensive one!"
Cllr Gunn further stated that the council's road department is using a converted road sweeper as a gully cleaner to clear out drains in the town and that a new device is awaiting delivery to the county.
He said that he hopes that a more comprehensive maintenance programme is put in place for clearing drains. "The council is so short of staff that the guys doing the much-needed road repairs are the same guys doing the drains. There's also a shortage of qualified operators," he told the Caithness Courier.
Cllr Reiss thanked local crew members from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service who were on an exercise and used the opportunity to clear some drains in the affected areas. "They were doing routine hydrant checks and decided to do some drain clearing as well. Absolutely brilliant to see the blocked drains being cleared out, even as the rain poured down."
Both councillors pointed out issues with road surfaces coming apart and lifting off at the bottom of Castlegreen Road and say that issue will also be investigated further. "It would appear that it could be a Scottish Water problem as it’s their manholes that are in the middle of the roadway, council manholes are usually at the side of the road," said Cllr Gunn.
After the Friday meeting, the Thurso councillors say there will be a "more comprehensive meeting" to be arranged in the near future.
Highland Council said that its staff started doing gully cleaning on Friday, the day the emergency meeting was called.
“The properties affected by the flooding all front onto the trunk road which is managed by BEAR Scotland for Transport Scotland,” said a council spokesperson.
Highland Council's roads department can supply sandbags to properties in areas that are prone to flooding. For more info call: 01349 886 690. Properties could be advised to install a better barrier than sandbags and there are waterproof barriers that can be quickly slotted into shop doorways.
