Falkirk Council: Officials say they are working hard to ensure drains are kept clear to reduce flooding risk

Following several periods of heavy rainfall in recent months, residents and motorists have highlighted that flooded areas tend to be where drains are blocked.

On Christmas day one side of the A9 between the Rosebank roundabout at Camelon and Ronades Road was covered in surface water which only went down after several days.

However, when the water did clear a survey of the area of road showed that most of the drains were blocked with silt, leaves and twigs.

One motorist said: “This is a very busy stretch of road and any disruption causes an impact. It’s lucky that this time it occurred during the school holidays or it would have caused even more impact with people going to and from St Mungo’s High and St Francis Primary.

"But you only have to look at the number of trees along the road to see how there can be so much debris if regular sweeping doesn’t take place.”

Residents in the Braes have also complained that blocked drains have led to flooding issues in and around their villages.

But Falkirk Council says it does target areas with higher leaf fall to ensure roads and pavements are kept safe for those using them.

A council spokesperson said: “Road sweeping is carried out on a range of frequencies dependant on the location and the unique demand of each area.

“The sweeping schedule from autumn until February relies on a season adjustments approach to target areas that have a higher leaf fall.

“This protects the council’s infrastructure as well as providing safer roads and walking routes for its communities.”

They added that Falkirk Council currently has 11 roadsweepers in total with nine able to sweep roads/paths and the other two large mechanical sweepers used for channel cleaning only.

The spokesperson added that gully cleaning across the district is carried out on a “cyclical and reactive basis”.

They said: “Our cyclical cleaning links in with our road hierarchy that then determines the frequency of cleaning. Reactive cleaning is also required given the weather we can experience, especially with heavy rainfall and flash flooding becoming more frequent.”