Councillors welcome anti-flooding works planned for Riverside Recycling Centre

Dundee City LibDem Councillors for the West End, Cllr Michael Crichton and Cllr Fraser Macpherson, have welcomed assurances from the City Council that works to tackle the on-going flooding issues at Riverside Recycling Centre are to take place.

The site has been closed numerous times because of flooding and reopened on 11th January following flooding caused by Storm Gerrit.

Councillor Crichton said:

“We have continually raised residents’ concerns at the number and length of closures at Riverside Recycling Centre and sought assurances that necessary flood defence works are put in place at the site so that a permanent solution is in place to avoid flooding and closures in the future.”  

“We are therefore pleased to have been advised this week of specific proposals to properly tackle this and we hope that this work will be commenced and completed during the early part of this year so that 2024 does not see the level of repeated closures that 2023 unfortunately saw.”

The council’s Service Manager (Waste) has advised the councillors as follows :

“Fraser/Michael

Storm Gerrit deposited a large volume of water within the recycling centre and the continued rainfall in subsequent days had resulted in the site remaining flooded. This exceeded the ability of the on-site pumps to discharge the water into the soakaway area, where the outflow is piped into. This soakaway area also requires time to drain, otherwise it reaches capacity.   The pumps are continuing to operate to displace the water, with additional resources on site to clear the latest flooding, as per the flood emergency plan through the use of 3rd party gully tankers – to drain water off the site. 

Council engineers are investigating ways to reduce the impact of surface water flooding at the recycling centre.  Engineers propose to model the surface water flows in the immediate vicinity of the site, with the aim to reduce the volume of water collecting in the centre.  Due to its location, at the lowest point in the area, the centre is susceptible to prolonged periods of rainfall.  It is hoped by reducing the volume of water reaching the site that it will lessen the amount of time the centre is closed for flood related issues, and this will help mitigate the frequency of closures that the site is currently experiencing.  Engineers have started work on this and hope to provide a list of initial measures for consideration by the end of January.  If these are accepted then we would look to progress works during 2024.

We would apologise to members of the public for any inconvenience that the recent closure has caused.”

Councillor Macpherson added:

 “Closures at Riverside are really unhelpful for West End residents as the only other major recycling centre in Dundee at Baldovie is 9.3 miles away, extremely inconvenient for people in the west of the city.    What’s more, after Christmas, with Riverside closed, residents had to wait in huge queues at Baldovie.   

“Had the SNP administration not axed the Marchbanks site against our advice back in 2013, there would at least have been an alternative recycling centre that didn’t involve a drive of over 9 miles to get to.

“Therefore the proposed actions to tackle the issues at Riverside are welcome but it is vital that the engineering solution is fully scoped and completed urgently.”