Fife Council has apologised over Dunfermline’s £24.6 million flood prevention scheme and admitted it has “failed” on budget and timescale.
During a public meeting on Wednesday evening, head of transportation, Dr Bob McLellan, apologised for delays to the project as he faced an angry tirade from residents.
He was grilled by a resident of Liggar’s Place, who said: “It’s been a disaster for people, who have had tractors sitting in their garden for three and a half years and people coming in and out and nobody telling us a word of what’s happening.
“By what criteria would the council determine that this has been a failure?
“I mean by that, at what level of budget expenditure would Fife Council determine it a failure, or what level of time expenditure, or what level of distress to residents or what level of mess left over?
“How many people would have to experience flooding as a result of the scheme for it to be a failure?
“When will the council say they’re sorry?”
Dr McLellan said: “In terms of budget, it has failed. In terms of time, it has failed. In terms of performance, it can’t fail because it will deliver a scheme that is fit for purpose.
“I’m not going to apologise for the whole scheme. It’s taken far longer than we would have liked but no matter what way anyone in the room wants to frame it, the finished product will give far more added value.
“The criteria for success is that this scheme will afford protection to 175 homes for a period of up to 200 years. I accept that we’ve been here longer than we would have liked to be.”
Work to bolster Dunfermline’s flood defences started in May 2007 and should have been completed in 2009. It is aimed at protecting 175 Dunfermline properties from the effects of a one-in-200-year storm.
However, the project is not expected to be finished until June next year and the cost has escalated from the initial estimate of £14m.
The Scottish Government agreed to pay 80% of the original cost but the Fife taxpayer will have to cover any extra, depending on how much the council can claw back.
The council appointed Atkins Limited as design contractors, who were represented at the meeting in the Dell Farquharson Community Leisure Centre.
During the meeting, an Atkins representative said the work would not prevent gardens from being flooded but Dr McLellan said he would challenge this.
He added: “I’m not any more keen to have flooding in gardens at the end of a £25 million project.”
Former MSP Jim Tolson, who spoke as a concerned resident, said: “I’m disgusted at the way people have been treated here.”
He told the officials there was a “serious problem right in front of your eyes” at one stretch of burn not covered by the flood prevention scheme, where the embankment was collapsing.
A number of residents received £900 payments earlier in the scheme but local surveyor Rod McRea said the council was not obliged to make further payments and some residents were looking to the Lands Tribunal for compensation.
“These are people who don’t have the money to fight their own corner,” he said.
A resident read an extract from the Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961, which stated compensation should equal the cost of damage, adding: “We deserve to have decent compensation.”