Businesses in the Lochavullin and Mill Lane area of Oban worst hit by October’s floods are calling on Argyll and Bute Council to give them a rent and rates amnesty to help them recover.
Oban Hire & Supplies Ltd owner David Chandler says businesses left underwater should be given at least three months off as they try to resurface.
Mr Chandler has lobbied Argyll and Bute MSP Jenni Minto and Brendan O’Hara MP for support and is waiting for a number of responses to Freedom of Information requests as part of a campaign to protect his and other businesses who rent flood-risk land from Argyll and Bute Council.
“Why should we be paying full rent and rates for land that is on a flood plain? We shouldn’t! If we were in England or Wales, we would be given three months off as part of a flood recovery scheme.
Mr Chandler wants to find out if proper flood defence precautions were put in place before Tesco was built and new housing up by the hospital so water would not be re-directed to the town’s biggest retail and industrial park.
He also wants to know if the flood barricades along the Black Lynn were in place, “because the rumour I’m hearing is that they weren’t”, he told The Oban Times. And added: “The rumour is that those barricades were not weighted down.”
Mr Chandler has also requested a SEPA flood report, which had from 2016 to 2021 to be carried out, looking at what needed to be done to keep the town protected after it was identified as being fifth out of 168 Scottish towns most in need of flood protection, he said.
Oban Hire and Supplies has only just got its card machine working again and is still relying on laptops after floodwater wrecked its computers. The stench is also lingering.
“We have until 2032 to reduce our carbon use by 70 per cent. To do that we’ve been bringing in new technology but what’s the point of that if we’re going to lose it all in floods again – it would literally be putting money down the drain,” said Mr Chandler, who was also tabling a question t this week’s BID4Obabn meeting about what the organisation was going to do about bringing forward support.
Roddy’s Garage in Mill Lane has still not recovered. Garage owner Roddy MacIsaac said: “We are still counting the cost and finding more equipment that was damaged. I can’t say exactly how much yet but so far we’re looking at about £40,000. It cost me £20,000 to get our MOT station back on track. We are sitting targets for high tide and extreme weather. I’ve been affected by floods in the past, not as extreme as my neighbours but this one was bad. No one will insure us because we’re on a flood plain, unless we pay the first £30,000 to £40,000. We rely on making most of our money in the summer months to help us get through the winter but it’s a worry not knowing what the winter will bring.
He added: “There’s been no one from any organisation come to see us. We lease the land from the council and we are part of BID4Oban but no one has been touch, not even a courtesy call to see if we were okay – which we weren’t.”
Munro’s Garage close by is still “playing catch-up” with customers who were booked in when the floods struck. “We are working through the problems we had but are left wondering about what the next flood will bring and thinking what else can we do to be prepared for it and to protect the business – although it’s hard to think of anything else that we could do that we haven’t done already,” said a spokeswoman at the garage.
The boss of LMS Auto Services in Crannog Lane said: “I want to find out what the council intends doing about all this. We rent from the council, it’s their land, so the ball is in their court. I’d been in correspondence with Argyll and Bute about flooding problems before the last flood happened but all I’ve been offered is advice on the business from their Business Support Gateway – how spiffing is that? Regarding any concrete or practical help, there’s been nothing.”
BID4Oban’s chief executive Andrew Spence said: “We are fully supportive and we are going to organise a meeting between affected businesses and the council. We thought it was important to give the council time to get on with cleaning up the damage on the roads first.”
Argyll and Bute Council said it “fully understands that a number of local businesses have been adversely impacted by the recent extreme weather”, adding that advice and information is available through the Business Gateway service offering help with recovery and contingency planning.
If a business premises is forced to close, is unable to trade and has a rating liability, it may apply for unoccupied rates relief, the spokesperson said.