A WEST FIFE man has once again taken it upon himself to clear out debris from Halbeath Pond as Storm Kathleen has been causing flooding across the Kingdom. 

Andrew Dunlop, an environmental campaigner who cleans out West Fife's rivers and ponds, noticed that water was once again building on Halbeath Road due to heavy rainfall. 

Last year he pulled a hay bale from the pond, which he believes was the cause of the huge flooding that took place last year and saw motorists being rescued from their stranded cars. 

"It was about the same as last time really," he told the Press. "But this time there was no hay bale it was just rubbish that was chucked in by nature.

"The flooding wasn't as bad but it still managed to get to the road, it was out halfway across the first part of the road and it was up about half a metre, and the cars were struggling to get through so I thought stuff it, I’ll go up and clear it - and now I'm stuffed with the cold!"

Andrew, who is part of the Clean Up Fife group, pulled out rubbish and debris from the pond and said that once the pond had been cleared the water dropped by around 4ft. 

In February last year Fife Council told the Press that "all parties are working together" to solve the flooding problem at the retail park. 

But Andrew feels that more needs to be done by Fife Council to ensure that things like this are prevented. 

He continued: "It’s been a year and nothing has happened, they’ve not done anything to try and fix the water problem and it overflowed again.  

"It’s all the sticks, it’s pretty much nature, through the winter everything has been falling in the water and clogging it up at the drain.  

"[The Council] said it wasn't necessary to get done, but if I didn't do it then it never would have got done and it would have made things worse. 

"Somebody has to do it if they don’t bother."

Andrew is now hoping that the Council will take further action to prevent a build-up of debris in the pond. 

He added: "They just need to maintain it a lot more because they say they check it once a year and once a year is not good enough. They need to put a water level thing in so if it builds up they know they need to get out and investigate it."

Sara Wilson, Fife Council's service manager for roads network management, said: "We've been in contact with the site factor for Halbeath Retail Park and we're continuing to monitor the situation."