Flooding woe after the snow

Residents of Letham Terrace wade through flood to their homes. Pic: Michael Gillen.

Householders in Letham Terrace, Letham were trapped in their homes on Tuesday as the bottom of their road was effectively cut off to traffic due to significant flooding in their street.

One family, who are now getting fed up with the regular problem of flood water, had to keep their children off school because they could not get them safely to Airth Primary.

Not only that, but they could not get through to the shops in Airth to get baby milk for their six-month-old.

Robert Paterson (37) said: “The access road was completely blocked. We’ve been here for four years now and this flooding has been going on for longer than that – it happens all the time, any time there is heavy rainfall – and the council are well aware of it.

“We cannot get our kids to school – there is no way for them to walk through and, unless you’ve got a 4x4 vehicle, there’s no way you can drive through that. It’s several feet deep at some points.

“This year the children have been off school seven or eight times purely because of the flooding and their education is suffering because of this. I just had a police officer at my door saying the road is actually passable – although I wouldn’t try it – but the flooding is going to get worse.

“The council has come to the street with pumps in the past, but there is some disagreement with a landowner which prevents them from dealing with the flooding.”

Falkirk Council stated this week it had already carried out work to deal with the issue.

A spokesman said: “We already have a fully funded and designed drainage improvement scheme prepared for this area, however, we have been unable to reach agreement with the private landowners involved to gain access to the land required to construct this.

“We understand there are similar issues with landowners around access for a sewer improvement scheme proposed by Scottish Water at this location.

“It is frustrating, however, there is alternative access to affected properties via a minor road to the west and south of Letham which is currently passable with care due to the recent snow.

“In the past we have also provided sand bags to properties until the water has subsided.”