Call for national flood strategy

The flood bill is likely to run into millions of pounds

Ministers have been urged to establish a national flood strategy for Scotland in the wake of the recent chaos caused by heavy rain.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said lessons must be learned and action taken to avoid a repeat of the problems caused by last week's incessant rain.

Hundreds of homes in the Lothians and Grampian were damaged when rivers burst their banks and the flooding almost led to the cancellation of the Rugby League Challenge Cup at Murrayfield Stadium.

Householders criticised councils' reaction

Nora Radcliffe, MSP for Gordon, has called for representatives of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency with responsibility for rivers to appear before the Scottish Parliament's Transport and Environment Committee to explain why the problem became so acute.

Mrs Radcliffe, who is vice convener of the committee, said she was "appalled" by an apparent lack of emergency planning and said she would be raising the matter during first minister's questions this week.

She said: "Scotland probably has one of the wettest climates in Europe, yet as this week has shown, the only emergency plan that is in operation during a flood is that of the local authority.

"It is unacceptable that there is no national coordination or guidelines laid down to deal with the scenes we all witnessed."

Emergency plans

The full cost of the flooding is still being counted and is expected to run into millions of pounds.

Homes, the transport network and farms were badly affected and the National Farmers' Union described the damage as horrendous.

Local authorities along the east coast have sought to defend their emergency plans amid criticism from residents.

There was particular anger in Elgin, where householders said it was evident that lessons had not been learned following a similar situation two-and-a-half years ago.