The Loanburn

Once again the residents of John Street (between Quadrant & Tesco petrol station) awoke to find the Loanburn had once again burst its banks and the gardens where completely flooded, Eastfield Drive was under water at its bridge over the Loanburn and water that was pouring over the wastland behind Tesco was finding its way into the Tesco delivery bay. Now the rain yesterday (Tues Jan 23rd) was heavy at times and overnight into Wednesday which when combined with snow melt resulted in the build up of water at Eastfield. Apparently the issue is with the path the water takes under Eastfield Drive and under the wasteland, the pipe that carries the water was damaged when extension work was done by Nobles which was repaired but not properly so a blockage occurs as the water simply cannot flow through in any great volume. The council put in a temporary fix by creating a hole in the wasteland area that the water can escape out and to compound it all wire mesh is in place to stop rubbish flowing under the road and creating a blockage but the trapped rubbish simply blocks the path of the burn... Anyhow this is the 3rd time in less than 12 months that flooding has occured. I'm told that one issue is that the council can't get anyone to accept liabilty for the land but something has to be done, not only are the ground floor properties at risk of flooding each time this happens but the build of water in the burn at Eastfield is such that anything or anyone falling in it I'd suggest wouldn't get back out - this build up occurs regularly as recently as over the Christmas & New Year period but the 'fix' helped releave the issue and flooding did not occur.
Anyone that walks along the Loanburn and in particularly along past the nice new flats at Eastfield Way will know that rubbish is an issue, the issue being that if wheelie bins are blown over or people drop it no-one picks it up and in turn this ends up going down the embankment into the burn and helps create the problem... Argghh and of course as the gardens got flooded the wheelie bins full of rubbish ended up floating about along with the contents so its now a clearup operation.... Rant over for now...

Typical problems caused by the "zero maintainance" policy which councils seem to love, even though it will end up costing them more money in the long run. It would probably need both Tesco and the petrol station to be flooded out before they do anything. Can local residents still get insurance for their homes in this area?

Last Wednesday, all day Thursday and part of Friday they had a pump on Eastfield Drive that helped drastically reduce the water level then along came a few showers on Saturday and a bit of rain on Sunday and wey hey water level right back up again although thankfully not enough to overspill, then the level dropped quite neatly through Monday into Tuesday only for the Tuesday night rain to bring the level straight back up again...
The other thing is that when the burn does swell up the depth of water behind the Tesco garage must be quite considerable, the path has been blocked off by a barrier but should anyone or anything have the misfortune to fall it I'd doubt a postive outcome...

Ah the joys of watching the weather forcast and thinking ah sh!* here we go again whenever anything more than a passing shower is forecast!!

A few days of snow and no noticeable effect on Loanburn, a wee bit thawing and the rain & snow of Tuesday and wey hey the water build up was back, council where advised and by late Tuesday afternoon they had a pump in place. Although they reduced the water level the effects of thawing snow mean't that by Wednesday evening the call was out to the council again to come back and turn the pump back on (had been left in place). More thawing still to be done and heavy rain forcast for the weekend makes it a bit of an nerving time...
Apparently the blockage is under land that was owned by Nobles but sold to Beatsons, the damage was allegedly done before the sale so Beatsons and neither side is willing to accept liability to repair which leaves the council to tidy up the mess

On a side note I contacted our 2 local councillors, one gave a reply and appears to actively be getting involved with the issue and the other 1 has basically just ignored the email with nothing more than a thanks for the email (saying nothing more other than he is from a party associated with the colour blue!)

Bet the candidates for the local election will be saying how they will get it all fixed if you vote for them! How long has this been going on for now and still no sign of a fix. If nobody is willing to accept responsibility for the land in question, then why don't the council just take it over and see what happens.
As with so many problems in Penicuik, such as the Tesco traffic lights and Cairnbank Road path access, there is lots of talk but nothing actually happens!

The last time I posted the Loanburn was being kept a bay by a single pump, well on the Saturday after I posted there was a fair amount of rain which when mixed with snow melt raised the level of the burn to a point that the pump was failing to cope and a second one was put in place (so 1 on each side of the Eastfield Drive) and despite a guy from the council reckoning the water level would settle the water had other ideas and not only started flooding over Eastfield Drive it also backed up and flooded the gardens again and by about 8pm the buildings looked like castles sitting in a moat! Thankfully the level did receed and by Sunday morning we where just left with large mucky puddles and rubbish from the bins all over the place. The 2 pumps where in place and pumping water until last Thursday when they finally opened Eastfield Drive again though the pump in the wasteland was kept running.
Standing on Eastfield Drive at the back of Tesco garage you can clearly see some of the damage being done by repeated flooding, I dread to think what I'd find if I lifted floorboards in the house.. All I know is that on the Saturday night you could hear the water pouring in through the air bricks and that from what I could tell the water can only have been a few cm from the floorboards....

Cannot fault the council or the response from a local councillor (SNP), the Tory boy who was also contacted has basically ignored contact made but then from what I can tell no one really knows who he is never mind and what he does....

Hopefully be a long time before I add anything to here, knowing the Scottish weather though and going on past experience I have my doubts though...

I hope you're right. I thought that we had seen the last of the snow until it decided to return at the end of last week
However, as you say knowing the Scottish weather I wouldn't be surprised if there is more rain still to come. I know a
couple of kids who live in flats along there but they are on the first floor. However, it's still not very pleasant for them
when their back garden repeatedly floods.

Summer is here and on Tuesday night the Loanburn lived up to its reputation once again thanks to inaction. Now it was pretty wet with John Street itself flooded (at least between Tesco garage & the Quadrant) thanks to the volume of rain that fell but once the really heavy stuff stopped the water quickly cleared... However the burn took until some intervention with the council pump on Wednesday to start dropping down to something near normal.
After the last flooding event in March we were told that the culvert behind Tesco was to be replaced and that this would start around the end of April, well here we are in June and the lastest from our local councillor - apparently Nobles are about to appoint a contractor to do the work!
Meanwhile the wasteland where the issue is has all been neatly cleared and flattened, it was hoped this was part of the resolution BUT rumour has it that it has been prep'd for Nobles to put storage units on it.....

Surely they wouldn't be daft enough to put storage on to a piece of land that regularly floods but then who knows!!

Don't worry as the council have a cast-iron guarantee that this problem will be all fixed THIS CENTURY! (NB: this also applies to the A702 / Mauricewood Road roundabout)

the troublle wi cast iron is it aye sinks

Winter time is upon us and in the last month alone the council have had to setup the pump at least 3 times to help the water flow of the Loanburn… After reassurances that this was going to get fixed it now it appears nothing is imminent and all we can do hope the weather isn't too hideous over the coming months and that the council continue to be reactive...

Be interesting to know how much it costs the council to manage this and will they ever get the money back from Beatsons who do appear quite frankly not to give a monkees. yes it will cost them money but if the issue is under the land they occupy! Always hopeful someone reroutes the pipes the council use with the pump so it pours into Beatsons yard to give them a dose of the water problem..

I think the only way that anything will get done about this is if the water got deep enough to flood Tesco and they started legal action against the council and property owners. All the hot air spouted about fixing it so far would have kept the entire town warm over the winter!

Looks like progress is being made, works being carried out in Beatsons yard with everything pointing to it being culvert repair work. Anyone on the Penicuik Residents Facebook page will have no doubt seen the photos and photos of the river as it goes through Beeslack woods etc looking very manky - that skank folks are complaining about in the river is what was backing up into peoples gardens etc...