Published: Wednesday, 3rd March, 2010 4:00pm

Residents say it's time for action over flooding issues

by Jim Stark

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A COWDENBEATH man is fed up with his street being a constant target for flooding and hopes that soon the problems experienced by residents in Cullaloe View will be tackled.

Alex Anderson's home was severely damaged by flooding in November and he and his family are still not able to move back in to their property.

And then on Thursday the water returned to the street at the south side of the town when snow followed by persistent heavy rain saw the drains unable to cope.

Alex told the Times, "The residents of Cullaloe View have had the worry of this flooding for over 15 years.

"The Council have said 'it is the Rail authorities problem and not theirs' and I have a letter from Fife Council to then Regional Councillor Tom Dair, from the then Director of Engineering John Rowson, in which he stated 'he was pleased to say that British Rail had accepted liability', also that a storm water holding tank was being built in Selkirk Avenue and a further tanks would be constructed in Arthur Place during the year 1994/1995.

"This problem has been reported by several residents and has been going on several times in any one year.

"Fife Council have refused to do anything regarding this and kept saying we should contact the the Rail authorities and even the local councillors have given us no assistance with this problem, taking the Council line".

He added, "This latest flooding has hit more than 12 houses, and since the last flooding, the Council owned house tenants have had nothing done even though this is contaminated water that has entered our properties. Some of these tenants are single parents and have no insurance.

"To me there is a serious problem that has changed the natural drainage from this area, and I am convinced this is nothing to do with the culvert under the railway.

"These storm holding tanks are controlled by pumps and we do not know if they are on a timer or on float switches.

"The Fire Service pumped tons of water away all Thursday night, but had to give in as they were just circulating the water over the rail track, This water started to go away but soon stopped and started to rise again. Then around 2pm on Friday for no reason we know, this water started to go away fast and the street cleared but we cannot get a reason why.

"Fife Council Parks men have put in some long hours to help with this problem and for this we are grateful, then I was on site when they were looking for problems and found a manhole that was blocked over the field and I asked Scottish water to attend and clear this but they did not respond".

Alex is now concerned that his house will become the target for flooding again if there is more heavy rain.

Meanwhile one lady who has stayed in Cullaloe View for over 30 years said, "This problem has got worse over the past few years.

"On Thursday the street became a river with torrents rushing down the street and we could see things like buckets floating down past houses. It was really quite frightening.

"It was difficult enough for vehicles to get up the street and totally inadvisable for pedestrians. We were basically marooned in our homes."

Another resident said, "This is the second time in four months we have been faced with this situation. It is time something was done to tackle this."

Jim Hooton, Service Manager Parks and Countryside with Fife Council said, "We reassure residents that we are treating this extremely seriously and our teams have been out on site to investigate.

"Situated beneath the railway line is an underground water culvert. This runs beneath and alongside the railway line and security fencing belonging to Network Rail.

"A thorough investigation along the length of this pipe is required. To do this we are liaising with Network Rail to arrange permission and safe access to the railway line and through their security fencing. The unprecedented weather has put additional pressure on all water systems and were also liaising with Scottish Water teams to alleviate the flooding as much as possible."

Cowdenbeath woman Anne Marie Dewar, Scottish Water's Regional Communities Manager for Fife, said, said that every effort was made to tackle the flooding problem.

She added, "Following reports of surface water flooding affecting properties in Cowdenbeath, Scottish Water's on-call engineers rushed to the town's Cullaloe View to assist fire fighters in tackling the flooding menace.

"They worked quickly together to ensure every effort was made to help pump away, and dispose of the large volume of surface water.

"We continued to monitor the situation and play a part where requested.

"Scottish Water plays a small but significant role in the wider flooding debate. We work in partnership with a number of organisations such as local authorities, the Scottish Government and SEPA in addressing the issue of flooding in communities throughout Scotland."

David Boyce from Network Rail was on site on Tuesday with his engineers, and said he would work with anyone to get to the bottom of the problem.

Alex welcomed the news but added, "We have been told the insurance will not do any work on our houses until this problem has been solved."