13 March 2014 Gail Donald - SEPA and flooding

President Colin Strachan welcomed members, visitors Iain Galloway, Gerard Gourley and Marcus Wood and our speaker for the evening, Gail Donald of SEPA, to last week's meeting at the Westlands Hotel.

Gail has worked for The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) since 2010, having previously spent 12 years working for the Environment Agency in England.

Gail's very timely talk focused on flooding and SEPA's role in this which was formalised in The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009.This act gave SEPA new responsibilities in relation to flood risk management along with Scottish Water and local authorities, unlike the position in England where the Environment Agency has overall responsibility. SEPA's role was further enhanced in 2011 when it took direct responsibility for issuing flood warnings. Gail stressed that SEPA's role is advisory and they cannot veto developments.

The Flood Act set out a timetable for all local authorities to prepare local flood risk management plans by 2016 and to develop strategies for dealing with flooding. Gail explained the processes which she and her colleagues use to assess flood risk and consider options for minimizing damage, including cost benefit analysis, liaison with landowners and possible short term measures while long term strategies are implemented.

The SEPA website: http://www.sepa.org.uk/flooding.aspx now has live updates, new flood maps and lots of information including registering to receive information direct to a mobile phone.

Peter Holmes gave the vote of thanks for a fascinating talk.