Kinross Surface Water Management Plan - Community Survey

Overview

Perth and Kinross Council is keen to consult with local residents and businesses in Kinross regarding flooding due to surface water. 

In December 2021, SEPA published the Forth Estuary Flood Risk Management (FRM) Plan and in February 2023, the Council published the Forth Estuary Local FRM Plan.  Both documents can be viewed via https://www.pkc.gov.uk/frmplans and include the requirement for a ‘Surface Water Management Plan’ (SWMP) for Kinross as one of the selected actions for managing flood risk in the area. 

SEPA has published flood risk maps on its website at https://map.sepa.org.uk/floodmaps.  These maps indicate the risk of potential flooding to parts of Kinross.  Due to the small catchment size, small watercourses may not be shown on SEPA’s indicative fluvial flood maps, which relates specifically to river flooding.  SEPA’s fluvial flood maps were developed using a consistent, nationally applied methodology to catchment areas equal to or greater than 3km2 using a Digital Terrain Model (DTM).  Therefore, the fluvial flood risk from such minor watercourses has not been modelled or shown on SEPA’s fluvial flood maps.  

In March 2025 this gap was addressed when SEPA launched new surface water and small watercourse flood maps to strengthen Scotland’s climate resilience.  These new flood maps aim to indicate pluvial flood risk from surface water and small watercourses of catchment areas smaller than 3km 2. This rainfall driven modelling approach allows for the typically rapid response of the drainage systems in small catchments to be accounted for. 

The flood maps are primarily backed up by historical reports of flooding; however, these are indicative and do not cover every instance of past flooding reported.   

The following issues have been observed: 

• Smith Street is affected by pluvial (surface water) from street run off and also fluvial flooding from the Clash Burn. 

• High Street is affected from pluvial run off from surcharging drainage network. 

• Quiech Place is affected from pluvial flooding from High Street and also fluvial flooding from the South Queich. 

• Old Cleish Road is affected by fluvial flooding from the South Quiech and Gelly Burn. 

• Junction Road is affected by pluvial run off from adjacent higher ground and also fluvial flooding from the South Queich. 

• Bowton Road is affected by pluvial flooding from surcharging drainage systems. 

Perth and Kinross Council has recently engaged consulting engineers, Tetra Tech Consulting Ltd, to develop the SWMP.  This work will involve reviewing and modelling existing flood conditions and the consideration of potential measures to address flood risk.  The Council is therefore keen to engage with the local community to accommodate as much knowledge of flooding as possible.  

Your assistance in the development of the SWMP would be greatly appreciated. Further information on flood risk and how to deal with flooding can be found on the Council’s website.

Why your views matter

The Council is therefore keen to engage with the local community to accommodate as much knowledge of flooding as possible. We are looking for the following:

• Details of past flood events: locations, dates, times/durations, flood extents, depths and damage caused;
• Background information, records, videos or photographs of previous flooding

We would be grateful if you could complete this consultation by Friday 30 October 2026.  

We would encourage residents to share their views by completing the questionnaire, and to provide any flood photos and videos they may hold. We can copy any such information and return it to you if this would help.  This information will help to inform the development of the Kinross surface water management plan.