Perth residents faced with repeated flooding have called a meeting as they take matters into their own hands.
Neighbours in the Craigie and Cherrybank areas have set up a new group – Perth Community Flood Aid – to build resilience against adverse weather events.
And they are hoping for a good turnout at a public meeting they are hosting on Saturday.
It takes place at Glenearn Community Campus in Craigie at 12.30pm.
Flooding caused extensive damage to Janice Haig’s Croft Park home in 2020. She says she has to use water pumps to stop levels rising in her garden several times a year.
“The meeting is to discuss helping each other at community level – not local or national government and other agencies,” says Janice.
“All levels of flood prevention, protection and resilience must be dealt with.”
How can Perth Community Flood Aid help?
Janice explains they plan to set up a committee with the aim of applying for funding.
They want to buy equipment such as flood sacks for community use.
And Janice says they will be working with advice from the Scottish Flood Forum.
“This help could be information and advice on what products to buy, help to prepare for flooding, providing flood protection products to those who cannot afford to buy them themselves and early warning of possible flood events.”
She adds the group is hoping to secure funding for a RiverTrack system to provide local residents with their own early warning system.
Ahead of the meeting to discuss local flooding, Janice is urging residents to fill out a questionnaire. This is on Perth Community Flood Aid’s Facebook page.
“The more questionnaires we get back the clearer the picture we will have of the Craigie Burn catchment area community. And the more understanding we will have on how to help improve our flood resilience.”
Meeting to empower residents
Craigie resident Shelley Jeffrey says previous meetings to discuss flooding in the Perth area have been “discouraging”.
They add: “There were massive turn outs but very few people got a chance to really be heard or have any sort of immediate response to their problems.
“This meeting will be an opportunity for people to first of all talk about what sort of help they need.
“Then we’ll work together to come up with solutions to help each other.
“There are some larger scale infrastructure issues that we don’t really have control over, but there are masses of things we can do as a community.”
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