Flood resilience event hailed a success by those at risk

Residents of high-risk flood areas in Orkney have hailed the recent flood resilience event a great success.

A St Margaret’s Hope homeowner said: “The event was exactly as I hoped it would be with sound advice and hands on demonstrations with some of the flood defences, equipment and tools that are out there to try and better flood proof your home. Not just that, but also how to access the most suitable pieces of home flood protection equipment. Prevention is always better than cure.”

The Council hosted the resilience community engagement event at the end of September with a visit from the Scottish Flood Forum (SFF) – Scotland’s only charity dedicated to supporting flood-risk communities. Their aim is to reduce the impacts of flooding on individuals and communities, through providing immediate support and by establishing a network of community resilience groups in flood risk areas to equip communities to cope with the impacts and threat of flooding.

At four drop-in sessions in Kirkwall, Stromness and St Margaret’s Hope and two virtual sessions open to anyone across Orkney, people were given advice and support by SFF Community Resilience Manager, Paul Laidlaw, and Peter Woodward from the Council’s Engineering section.

Mr Laidlaw said: “The SFF visit to Orkney was very productive in starting a conversation about working with OIC and flood risk communities to develop better flood resilience. Many people we spoke to are really interested in how they can protect their properties, access the www.floodre.co.uk affordable insurance scheme, learn more about a community flood action groups and how they can influence flood risk management.

“We have a list of 15 people who would like the SFF to carry out an independent property flood protection assessment and we are discussing this as an action with OIC. The SFF work with about 50 community flood groups across Scotland who contribute huge amount of value and benefits to their local communities. It would be fantastic to put Orkney on that map as part of our national flood risk community movement”.

These inspections are being planned for early in 2022 and will provide householders and businesses with a report on measures which could be taken to improve resistance to flooding, limit impact and minimise the disruption and expense of recovery to their property.

It’s not too late if others would also like to benefit from this offer. Property owners wishing to request a property inspection by SFF or seeking advice on flooding, whether from the sea or surface water or sewers, should contact the Scottish Flood Forum Web  www.scottishfloodforum.org via admin@scottishfloodforum.org or OIC Engineering  Flooding Information (orkney.gov.uk) or 873535.

Another resident of St Margaret’s Hope said she is looking forward to the assessment and any measures that can be taken as a result to help protect her home from flooding.

“We bought our home in December 2019 knowing it would be prone to flooding; what we didn’t expect was it to flood in the basement twice within the space of around a month soon after moving in. We are signed up to the SEPA Floodline but when the opportunity arose to meet with the charity and get flooding advice, we jumped at the chance. Paul Laidlaw was brilliant, very welcoming, knowledgeable and gave us a very good understanding of the options available. It was really helpful seeing some of the equipment and actually getting your hands on it for practical reasons such a whether or not it would fit in your property or if you can lift it.

“We are very much looking forward to the assessment of our property to see the practical measures we can take to help ourselves. We also spoke with Peter Woodward who was able to update us on the consultation action plan and what the Council are doing.”

Mr Woodward said: “The in-person sessions held this week within flood-affected communities provided an opportunity for visitors to see a range of the property level flood protection measures on the market and discuss their applications.  A number of discussions concerning the availability, cost and adequacy of insurance of properties identified as being at risk of flooding highlighted the need for greater awareness of this matter and of the UK-wide Flood-Re insurance scheme in particular.”

There are 680 residential and 460 non-residential properties deemed to be at risk of flooding in Orkney according to the 2015 Flood Risk Strategy for the islands. Over 90% of identified risk is from the sea with the remainder from surface water and overtopping watercourses.