The cost of a specialist report warning Brechin’s £16 million flood protection level had halved two years before Storm Babet struck has been revealed.
In 2021, Angus Council commissioned specialist engineers to assess the state of the five-year-old defences at River Street.
Experts came back with a forecast it would hold back a one-in-100-year flood event – not the one-in-200-year disaster it was designed to withstand.
But the JBA Consulting report was never put before councillors.
It meant elected members did not have the chance to consider the detailed document which the authority paid nearly £15,000 for.
Brechin flood protection ‘relatively high’, report said
The council has defended the decision.
It said the findings showed Brechin’s flood protection level remained “relatively high”.
Officials have consistently said the impact of Storm Babet was the result of unprecedented circumstances in October 2023 rather than any flood scheme failings.
But factors including climate change have now left post-Babet protection at a one-in-50-year level.
The council has now confirmed JBA’s 2021 consultancy work cost £14,851.
A spokesperson said: “Inspection and assessment of infrastructure managed and maintained by the council is routinely carried out.
“Formal reports to elected members on the outcomes of such studies do not require to be reported to committee under the council’s scheme of governance and committee terms of reference.
“The level of protection provided by the scheme was still assessed as relatively high.
“However, Storm Babet was an exceptional weather event, producing record rainfall and river flows significantly exceeding the scheme’s original design parameters.
“This context highlights the extreme nature of the storm rather than any inadequacy in the flood defences.”
Earlier this month we revealed the contents of the JBA report after local businessman Kevin Mackie obtained the document through Freedom of Information.
He was told by the council in 2022 there were “no plans” to make any enhancements to the River South Esk flood scheme.
Surprise Storm Babet report was not reported
Brechin Independent councillor Jill Scott said she was surprised the findings of the £15k report were never reported.
“If we thought it worth spending £15,000 on a report I would have thought it would have also been worth letting elected members know what it contained,” she said.
“Obviously Storm Babet was a catastrophic and unprecedented storm event.
“But even if the 2021 report didn’t recommend any changes or additions, I think the drop in protection level – for whatever reasons – is something we could have been told about.
“Surely if it’s been inspected then it would be worth letting elected members know the outcome.
“It could have been done through an information report, which we regularly receive on many areas of the council.”
This week a former council leader said she did not believe rebuilding River Street houses which lie empty more than a year on was “sensible”.
SNP housing spokesperson Beth Whiteside made the comment as councillors considered the next step towards a Brechin-wide consultation on the town’s recovery.
A £17m figure has been put on reinstating River Street council houses to their original condition.
She said: “It’s been vulnerable in the past many times and it’s going to continue to be regardless of what mitigations are put in place.”
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