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.

Forres flooding: Council announces partnership to tackle drainage issues

The high street in Forres. Picture by Jason Hedges
The high street in Forres. Picture by Jason Hedges

Moray Council has announced a partnership with Scottish Water in an effort to solve drainage issues in Forres that resulted in flooding last week.

Sandbags were laid outside properties and the fire service was called out to assist after flash floods appeared around the town during stormy weather on Tuesday.

Overwhelmed drainage systems have been identified as a major cause of the problems by the local authority, and they have now looked to the public company to help them find a solution.

Scottish Water modelled the network of drains in Forres as part of the most recent Flood Risk Management Planning process, and it is this data that is currently being analysed by Moray Council.

The information will be combined with historic flooding data to form a new Surface Water Management Plan – with the aim of ensuring all rainwater has somewhere to go.

‘Significant pressure’ on network

However, a member of Scottish Water’s flood risk management team has said there are “few easy options” for answers.

Grant Vanson, from the team, said: “Very intense storm events of the kind that occurred in Forres last week put urban drainage systems, including road drains and the sewer network, under significant pressure.

“Very high volumes of rainfall in a very short period of time overwhelm the available pipes and storage capacity and unfortunately this results in flooding.

“Scottish Water and Moray Council have been working together to understand the areas most affected and consider measures that can be introduced to reduce the surface water flood risk during these intense rainfall events.

“There are few easy options, but we are committed to working in partnership with the council to make progress.”

Weather warning approaches

The announcement comes ahead of a weather warning for thunderstorms covering the entirety of mainland Scotland on Saturday.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency has also issued flood alerts for areas including the north-east.

If Moray is hit by rain as significant as last week, it is likely that the Forres drainage system will be put under pressure again.

Consultancy Manager for Moray Council Debbie Halliday said: “This plan will identify areas in Forres at risk of flooding, the flood mechanism and potential actions that can be taken to mitigate flooding.

“It should be noted that potential actions to mitigate flooding will be subject to an economic appraisal before funding can be secured.

“We seek, however, to reassure residents and business owners in Forres that meaningful work is going on to develop solutions to the long-standing issue of drainage flooding in the area.”