Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) is confident the new measures in place should avoid a repeat of last year’s floodgate fiasco.
On October 8, 2023 several Perth floodgates were left open and numerous properties were deluged with flood-water including the now closed Bell’s Sports Centre which suffered up to £2 million of damage.
The findings of a review into the council’s response to severe weather events was publicly presented at a meeting of PKC’s Scrutiny and Performance Committee on Wednesday, December 18.
In what was the final council committee meeting of the year, councillors discussed the review which was written by PKC’s legal chief Lisa Simpson on behalf of the Scrutiny and Performance Committee.
The report found both inadequate staffing and “the unexpected severity of the weather event undermined the quality of our response on that occasion”. It admitted not closing certain Perth floodgates the weekend of October 6 to 8, 2023 “as per the protocol was the wrong decision”.
The local authority’s strategic lead for Environment and Infrastructure Fraser Crofts assured councillors the measures in place should avoid a repeat of last year’s events. A number of changes are now in place including the purchase of lightweight barriers and having more staff trained to close gates and provide assistance if required.
Mr Crofts said: “We are confident and feel reassured in terms of work we have undertaken that we now have in place an appropriate level of resourcing, not just throughout the winter months but throughout the whole year.
“There has been a lot of learning from the events last year, clearly. I think the arrangements with our partner organisations have also significantly improved.
“Our access to information, our ability to work more closely with those agencies as well strengthened that, aligned to the resourcing arrangements, we firmly believe will be sufficient going forward.”
Conservative councillor Angus Forbes said he found the report “very reassuring”.
He added: “I remember way back at the start, the chief executive did apologise for the issue that was caused.
“I think that nothing we say or do will give people back the property they’ve lost or stress they have gone through but I’m certainly confident, over the time I’ve spent involved in this, that we have put everything we can into this and accepted where things went wrong. I think as a council we have learnt from where things went wrong and we’ve got a clear plan to make sure that never happens again.
“I don’t think any of us can sit here and say there will never be a flooding incident again but I do think the issues that were caused on that occasion have been resolved and will not be coming to haunt us again in the future.”
The Carse of Gowrie councillor also called on elected members to “show face” at events such as this.
Cllr Forbes added: “I publicly criticised the administration at the time for not really having anyone on site when this was happening. I know Bailie Ahern was there for most of the day dealing with his constituents. I think we have to remind ourselves that we are there to be the face of the council to the people who have elected us. We are not there to get in the way of the trained officers who are there to do their job but I think we need to show face at these things.”
Vice convener Labour councillor Alasdair Bailey believes the review has “hopefully explored every nook and cranny”.
Bailie Bailey added: “It’s given us numerous areas where we can improve to avoid repetition because that I think is the point of scrutiny of making sure we not only point at the problem but we also propose solutions and help others by ensuring those solutions are actions.”
SNP councillor Jack Welch welcomed the changes that have been made and will continue to be made.
He said: “I welcome this report and efforts to really get to the bottom of what happened and to put in place procedures and processes to ensure we minimise the chances of it happening again.
“It’s clear that events like this cause huge upset – both financial and personal – to residents and businesses that are affected and it’s important that this committee has recognised this in terms of the diligence this committee has shown to ensure this report is as comprehensive as possible.
“Going forward, effectively the protocols and processes are essentially living documents and ultimately will be revisited regularly.”
He was pleased the report recognised there was a “need to accommodate our increasingly changing climate as not necessarily winter events but all-year-round dangers”.
Convener Independent councillor Colin Stewart said it was “important” for the council to undertake these types of scrutiny reviews and “learn lessons from events such as we saw last October”.
The convener added: “I think it’s been very helpful as a process to go through and am pleased as well the committee has been able to contribute by putting in additional recommendations over and above the officers’ recommendations.”
He referred to suggestions such as a “year-round” weather response and funding for community resilience groups which have increased from 10 to 56 “and rising”.