Pittenweem residents 'reassured' after coastal flood defence repaired following Storm Babet

Emergency repairs on a coastal protection wall that collapsed into the sea in Fife have been completed.

The sea wall in Pittenweem was battered by wind and heavy rain brought by Storm Babet in October.

Rob Allen’s home backs onto the wall and he lost part of his garden when it collapsed.

He told STV News: “It was a pretty sleepless night to be honest.

“We could hear the high tide, it was about two or three a.m. and we heard the damage being done and we could hear parts of the wall falling away.”

Contractors have used cranes to carefully lift equipment and building materials to repair the wall and protect the properties around it.

The work has taken a month to complete, which Mr Allen believes is a “reassuring” sign.

Altany Craik, Scottish Labour councillor for Glenrothes West and Kinglassie at Fife Council, said they were shocked at the damage caused by Storm Babet.

He said: “What we’ve found is our coastal communities face storms every year, but the ferocity of the one we’ve just experienced and the impact it’s had on residents and on the coast line has been more than we might have expected.

“We’re as prepared as we can be and we’re as responsive as we can be to the incidents as they occur.

“We’re prepared for winter, we prepare every year, whether that’s grit for gritting roads or it’s for flooding and so on, so there are yet another set of variables we have to manage and we’re as prepared as we can be when it happens, if it happens.”