WATCH: Flood gates floated following death of woman rescued from water in Walkerburn
Last updated 7th Sep 2024
Flood gates could be installed at a bridge in Walkerburn where a woman became trapped by rising water and later died.
It's one of the ideas being floated by a new group set-up in the aftermath of the tragedy, which unfolded on Hogmanay 2022, to help protect local residents from more severe weather events in the future.
Colin Kerr, who chairs Tweeddale Flood Group, told Greatest Hits Radio: "Climate change is not going to get any better over the next two or three years, it's going to get worse; so we have to prepare.
"I want to get gates put on the bridges, so that if they're closed, they're closed, and people shouldn't go past them.
"The fire brigade have been concerned in the past about people going past Road Closed signs, and into flooded water.
"It's not just putting those people in danger, it's putting personnel from the fire service in danger as well because they have to go and rescue them."
WATCH: Click on the link below to view our video interview with Colin...
It's unclear what funding's available for improved flood defences along the River Tweed, or how soon any measures could be put in place.
But Colin says progress is being made.
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"We have a great coming together in the village when these incidents happen, but now we're going to support other communities," he said.
"We're hopefully going to get VHF radios so we can get in contact with each other, to find out how each other are doing.
"This is the year's anniversary of (Tweeddale Flood Group). We've now got Clovenfords, Walkerburn, Innerleithen, Peebles and West Linton; so all these communities have come together and we are sharing ideas."
And he added: "Hopefully the outcomes from this going forward should be able to get things moving with regards flood mitigation."
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