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Apology as ‘technical issues’ block public from watching Perth floodgates fiasco meeting

The website failure meant no one outside the council chamber could watch as councillors discussed the flooding in Perth last October.

Council workers closing floodgates beside River Tay in perth
The council meeting considered the delay in closing the Perth flood defences last October. Image: Steve MacDougall/DC Thomson.

Council bosses have apologised after members of the public were blocked from watching a long-awaited meeting to discuss the Perth floodgates fiasco.

Perth and Kinross Council’s scrutiny committee met on Wednesday to consider the final report on the flooding last October.

It comes after a report to councillors acknowledged officials made the wrong decision when they left the North Inch floodgates open.

Committee meetings are normally broadcast live via a link on the website.

But the link to Wednesday’s meeting failed.

And that meant no one outside the council chamber in Perth could watch the flood discussion live.

Perth and Kinross Council logo on wall of council HQ in Perth
Perth and Kinross Council apologised for the flood meeting hiccup. Image: Steve MacDougall/DC Thomson.

The council said it was sorry for the “technical issues”.

And it rushed out a recording, which was available on YouTube later in the afternoon.

A spokesperson told The Courier: “Perth and Kinross Council is committed to transparency and apologise for the technical issues that meant we were unable to stream Wednesday’s scrutiny and performance meeting live.

“Although the meeting was open to the public, we know there is significant interest in this issue and many people will have wanted to watch proceedings online.”

Flood meeting followed council report on Perth chaos last October

The meeting started late, and the discussion of the flooding report took only a few minutes.

As The Courier revealed last week, the council has now admitted it was wrong to leave the North Inch floodgates open.

Men in yellow hi vis gear standing next to open flood gate as filthy brown water pours through from River Tay
Water pours through the Perth floodgates on October 8 2023. Image: Steve MacDougall/DC Thomson.

An amber weather warning had been issued for the weekend of October 6-8 2023.

But the council later admitted there were too few trained staff on duty to close all of the gates in Perth’s £25 million flood defences on the Saturday night.

Nearby homes, businesses suffered millions of pounds worth of damage when the River Tay spilled through the city’s £25m flood defences.

Bell’s Sports Centre was among the casualties. It was left with a £2m repair bill and has never re-opened.

Fire crews on street and outside basement properties, where they and residents are standing knee deep in water
Basement properties beside the North Inch were deluged. Image: Supplied.

The report was prepared for the scrutiny and performance committee by the council’s legal chief Lisa Simpson.

In it, she writes: “With the benefit of hindsight, in relation to the floodgates on the North Inch, this was the wrong decision.”

Officers ‘confident’ council has sufficient staff to close floodgates in future

The report also notes that the council has introduced a number of changes in the aftermath of the flooding.

These include training additional staff so they can be brought in to help close the floodgates.

Councillor Angus Forbes raised an email, which had been sent to all members of the committee by Perth businessman Blain Ross.

Blain Ross portrait.
Perth flood victim Blain Ross emailed all members of the council committee before the meeting. Image: Elliot Cansfield.

Mr Ross’s Rose Terrace property was among those flooded.

And he has called on the council to extend the training to firefighters so they can also step in.

Fraser Crofts, the council’s strategic lead for environment and infrastructure, told Mr Forbes he was confident there are now sufficient council staff to do the job.

“We have, in particular, trained up a number of our parking and civil contingency staff,” he said.

“We aim to do further work with some of our community wardens.”

And he added: “We feel reassured in terms of the work that has been undertaken that we now have an appropriate level of resourcing.”

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