Long-awaited flood prevention works in Kilcreggan now look set to be finished two months late, a meeting heard last week.
Severe flooding problems on three roads were highlighted at Cove and Kilcreggan Community Council, but the worst of these was Tigh Dearg Road.
Flooding there was first reported in 1986, said convener John Auld, but a major project to fix the problem now looks set to finished at the end of March, two months behind schedule.
One resident has been to leave their home because of last autumn’s flooding, while another’s wall collapsed during the work.
Community council secretary Sheelagh O’Reilly said communication from Argyll and Bute Council had been very poor, and residents who have been hit by issues including severe vibrations should have had weekly updates by a named contact from the start.
“I think the residents of Tigh Dearg have played an awful lot of ’email tag’ with the council,” she said.
“I feel very strongly about this, it hasn’t been Argyll and Bute Council’s finest hour in terms of communication.”
James McLean said it had been ‘a pretty disgraceful episode’ and that Argyll and Bute should have appointed an expert professional to speak for people affected.
Argyll and Bute provost Maurice Corry said he had personally visited the residents because of the problems.
“We put all hands to the pump to sort this when we realised how bad it was,” he added.
The meeting was also told by a resident that the single-track Barbour Road (above) was close to collapse above Cove, and community councillor Lynda MacKenzie said her property had been flooded because of this.
Mr McLean said: “At the moment the Barbour Road is a disgrace.
“Someone has dredged out one of the ditches and stopped half the way along.”
And Cllr Corry said he was ‘horrified’ by some of the lack of maintenance on Barbour Road.
School Road (above) has also been plagued by flooding, which led to a sink-hole forming in 2022 and what the community council’s agenda described as ‘a boating lake’ forming at its junction with Shore Road.
Last week’s meeting heard that the problem had been traced to a drain which had a 90-degree bend.
Mr Corry promised that work to fix this would be carried out, saying: “You can rest assured that will be done.”
Mr Auld said there was widespread concern about a lack of future-proofing from Argyll and Bute, adding: “There is a significant issue with the local authority doing preventative work.
“It is an increasing problem within Argyll and Bute.
“There is a lot of maintenance that Argyll and Bute should have been doing and have not been doing.”
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