A FRUSTRATED Cardenden couple have hit out at Fife Council over continued delays to the long-running Jamphlars Pond saga.

Jim and Anne Barber, of Jamphlars Road, have been seeking a solution to flooding problems caused by the pond, which was developed and used to dous fires at the former Bowhill Colliery, for the best part of a decade.

Residents on the even number side of the street have suffered years of misery with polluted water cascading from the pond leading to flooding in their gardens and damage to properties, with the the Barbers’ house at number 156 the worst affected.

The pond is sited just 30 yards from their garden, which has been submerged under water on a number of occasions, often measuring up to four feet.

Although the council has always maintained that because they do not own the pond there is little that they could do to stop the flood water, in December they announced plans for a £750,000 water treatment project in a bid to alleviate the “prolonged distress for the residents who live nearby”.

The work, funded by the council and Scottish Government, was scheduled to start in January and take three months to complete.

Although a one-off ditch clearance and silt removal operation was carried out in February, which was hoped to alleviate flooding at Woodend Park, Jim told the Times he was angered by a lack of progress on the installation of the water quality treatment pipeline, which is now not likely to be completed until the autumn.

He said, “They were supposed to have built a water cleansing plant by March/April but its still not been done. They’ve done other work in putting a solution in place at Woodend, but we seem to have been fobbed off. This has been ongoing for around nine years but the council don’t seem to want to do the work and try to pass the responsibility off to someone else.

“I have been sending emails continuously to the council and the last one I got from them said that work would start in June. Yet we’re a third of the way through the financial year of 2015 and it still hasn’t! I did ask them for a meeting but I was told that that wasn’t appropriate. I wanted to meet face-to-face to see what I could do to help the situation. But to say that this has angered me is an understatement.” Lead officer Kenny Bisset commented, “We have been in touch with Mr Barber and are continuing to keep him informed of progress on the project at Jamphlars Pond.

“Ditch clearance and sediment removal works were carried out earlier this year in the Woodend Play Park area.

“The next phase of work will include ditch clearance and sediment removal in the Kirk Burn area and we are progressing arrangements for site access so that we can start works in this area later this year. It’s hoped that this will be completed before this winter.”