PRESS RELEASE

October 7th, 2008

McNeil in flooding challenge

MSP Duncan McNeil has called on the Scottish Government and Scottish Water to work together to reverse the escalating sewage flooding problem plaguing Inverclyde.

During his investigations into the problem, Mr McNeil discovered that over the last five years there have been more than 4,000 flooding reports categorised as external – which is flooding in and around the boundary of a property.

Despite this number doubling annually over this period, only internal flooding – which is where an integral part of a property is affected – is funded for repairs by Scottish Water.

This means that no money is available to tackle the sewer flooding that regularly swamps Inverkip Main Street and other flooding blackspots like Branchton and Braeside.

During his enquiries into flood prevention funds, both Scottish Water and the Scottish Government blamed the other for the priority funding being made elsewhere.

In Parliament, Mr McNeil quizzed Environment secretary Michael Russell over future plans to give Scottish Water enough funding to tackle additional issues.

While he was able to gain assurances that external flooding will be taken ‘much more seriously’ in future, Mr McNeil said: “Sewage flooding is a public hazard and can cause misery by making gardens unusable and unsafe for children to play, ruin property stored in detached garages and make public streets and roads inaccessible.

“I have constituents in Inverkip disgusted by the sewage that floods their village and it is clear from these figures they are not alone in feeling this. Branchton and Braeside are just two more that have suffered.

“Scottish Water admitted that external flooding was a major issue but there simply wasn’t the funding to fix it.

“So it is about time that the government and Scottish Water stopped blaming each other and got round to addressing the problem.

“I am disappointed in delay in getting funds to tackle external flooding but the acceptance that it is a major issues is progress in some way.

“But I will be keeping the pressure on the Scottish government to ensure that Inverclyde receives its fair share of money when it does become available.”

ENDS

The table below shows the number of contacts we received from customers reporting external sewer flooding incidents in postcodes PA13 - PA19 during each of the years 2003/04 - 2007/08 and for the first six months of 2008/09.