EAST Renfrewshire residents have called for local greenspace and farmland to be turned into ‘flood storage areas’ to protect their homes.

Members of the public packed the conference suite at Mearns Castle High School last week for the AGM of the Newton Mearns Flood Group, at which proposals to protect the community from flooding were outlined.

Suggestions for the future Newton Mearns Local Flood Risk Management Plan included removing surface water from sewers and the creation of flood storage areas on greenspace and surrounding farmland.

The flood group remains concerned that recent approvals for planning applications at Maidenhill have not adequately considered the flooding risk posed to nearby areas.

Experts at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) currently estimate that up to 1,600 people in Newton Mearns are at flood risk.

During the past year, there have been 12 sewer flooding events reported in the area, including internal sewer flooding within homes.

Newton Mearns Flood Group’s technical advisor, Dr Michael Bradman, said: “The current sewer system has issues as it carries both sewage and surface water.

“Over the years, as more and more developments have been added to them, those sewers have overflowed. Climate change is also beginning to have an effect as we have harder rain showers that last for a shorter time.

“We want the surface water to be taken out of the sewers, which Scottish Water also want, but you have to create a separate system that would drain into basins that would hold the water and gently let it out.

“Land would have to be set aside for those basins, similar to the White Cart Water Flood Prevention Scheme for the south of Glasgow. We think it would be beneficial to Newton Mearns to have a smaller version of that.

“We think the council, together with SEPA and Scottish Water, should be looking at additional schemes to flood farmland so that houses don’t get flooded.

“Newton Mearns is classified as a potentially vulnerable area for flooding, as is Barrhead.”

Dawn Lochhead, flooding manager at Scottish Water, was also at the AGM and encouraged residents to take videos and photos of sewer flooding events.

These should be reported to Scottish Water’s customer helpline on 0800 0778 778. Videos and photos should be submitted by email to help@scottishwater.co.uk.