The concerns we have are around the uncontrolled passage of water over and around the site, in a way that will cause pollution of water courses, and movement of contaminated earth

Residents who have lived nearby for 30 or more years report that the rainfall level in this area has increased significantly, to the extent of causing localised flooding several times a year, where previously this happened just once every two or three years.

Once saturated, the heavy clay soil will not absorb more water, and run - off occurs over the surfaces of any down slope, taking top soil with it, along with anything else on the surface.

The nearest meteorological station to the south (1) operated by SEPA , is at Hume Farm, Carmyllie, just 4.6Km from the site. At the time of writing this station has recorded 536mm of rain between 1st January and 19th November. Taking the December 2019 figure into account, the annual rainfall in 2020 is likely to exceed 600mm, or about two feet. This is a conservative estimate, as the equivalent figure from the rain gauge at Colliston, 4.4 Km from the site, is 732mm for 2020, year to 19th November, making 800mm, just over 31 inches, a likely total for the year.

The applicant is planning to build on a concrete slab which measures approximately 170 x 100 metres - 17,000 square metres, according to the scoping document (Figure 1). This means that over a year, the hard standing will receive and have to manage approximately 17,000 x 0.6 = 10,200 cubic metres of water, based on the lower rainfall figure from Carmyllie.