The “inspirational” battling spirit of Scottish communities has been highlighted 10 years after a catastrophic storm front brought much of the UK to its knees.
Storm Frank swept through the country from December 29, 2015, bringing three days of torrential rain and severe gales which wracked the road network and left thousands of homes under water and without power.
It devastated homes and businesses for weeks and claimed three lives in Moray, the Highlands and Cornwall.
Some of the most iconic imagery from the storm was in the Royal Deeside village of Ballater, which suffered its most severe flooding since the Muckle Spate of 1829. Large-scale evacuations took place from December 30 as more than 300 homes and businesses were flooded.
Local MSP Alexander Burnett has commemorated the event with a Holyrood motion to mark a time when many “opened their homes to friends and neighbours”.
At Ballater, he said the village had since been left to find its own way to protect against future events.
The scenic tourist hotspot was earmarked for a £33 million manmade flood defence in 2020, and a request was made to the Scottish Government for funding.
This request has not been responded to and the scheme was deemed a “level 3” priority for policy makers — but residents decided to take matters into their own hands.
Scottish Conservative MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Alexander Burrnett, said: “After a wet December, Storm Frank caused the Dee, Don, Ythan and Ury all to overflow. That perfect storm caused chaos across the North East.
“There was so much determination shown by so many, I think it’s right that the Scottish Parliament recognises the ordeal people went through in the North East, the Highlands and the Borders, and elsewhere in Scotland.
“This was at a time of year that families would have been expecting to spend time with each other in peace and contentment.
“It’s also right that Holyrood reflects on what it should be doing now to protect communities like Ballater and many others from the same thing happening again in future.
“Ballater has received nothing in 10 years, so this is now lost time, and it’s quickly become obvious that the proposed flood scheme initially proposed isn’t going to work for a number of reasons.
“It’s too big, and there’s no money coming from the Scottish Government. The caravan park and golf club would effectively be erased. So decision makers are now on the clock to help find other solutions.”
Local projects have begun in the vacuum, with work involving Ballater & Crathie Community Council, Cairngorms National Park Authority, and Ballater Community Trust.
Mr Burnett credited the work of the community trust in raising money to build a bund with Hesco boxes provided by Aberdeenshire Council.
This was built by volunteers and protected the lower village against flooding in January 2024. Future phases of the project will create a soil and windblown tree embankment.
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“Although not much has changed from the top-down in how flood risk is being managed, what is different 10 years on is how the community are looking to their own defences,” Mr Burnett added.
“Rather than wait for a £33m scheme that could have wrecked their local economy, they have taken the initiative and started the job themselves.
“Who knows how long it will be until another Storm Frank or a Muckle Spate occurs, but the people of Ballater have shown necessity is the mother of invention.”
