Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeenshire floods were the “biggest event” the council has ever had to deal with

Director of infrastructure services, Stephen Archer
Director of infrastructure services, Stephen Archer

An Aberdeenshire Council chief said the flooding which struck the region in 2016 was officially “the biggest event” the local authority had ever dealt with.

Director of Infrastructure Services, Stephen Archer, also confirmed that the flood bill facing Aberdeenshire Council had officially topped £8million and was still being assessed.

The council chief added that the local authority – which was forced to make £28million of savings earlier this year – did not have all the required money and would have to complete the repair work across several years.

Floods in Kemnay
Floods in Kemnay

The local authority’s policy and resources committee last month approved using £3million from the council’s winter and other emergencies fund for remedial works to help get the region back on its feet.

It also backed spending £1.2million on repairing 22 council homes in Ballater.

However, Mr Archer said the £8million figure was a “potential cost” and not a “tendered” one.

He added: “It is the biggest event Aberdeenshire has ever had to respond to and we are still assessing the costs now and we are three months further on.

“It is over £8milion and that is potential cost because, on day one, you list all the things you need to do and say ‘that will be about £10,000, that will be about £50,000’.

“That is where that £8million figure comes from, so they are not tendered costs. They are best estimates from the professionals dealing with those issues.”

The scene when the River Dee burst its banks
The scene when the River Dee burst its banks

Mr Archer explained the council had “not got £8million sitting to be spent” adding that “the Scottish Government have put some money on the table to assist”.

He said: “Some of that £8million may be floodrelated, but you don’t need to do that this year, so you can do that in 2017-18.

“Our £8million may not all need to be spent in the next 12 months if it does all need to be spent we will need assistance because we have not got that fund.”

Mr Archer said some 300 staff members from his department alone were mobilised to respond to the floods in anyway they can starting on December 30.

He added: “It was a bit of all hansds on deck as is the way these thigns happen at night, on New Years Eve when it can be hard to galvansise the troops but people just stepped up

“They got stuck in. People just stepped up, we were sending them home to go have a break, go have a breather. It was really heartening.”