Call for urgent review of Langholm's flood defences following 'near catastrophic' incident
Last updated 18th Dec 2025
There's a call for an urgent review of Langholm's flood defences.
It comes after the A7 was blocked after water came pouring down the trunk road last night (Wednesday).
Local councillor Denis Male says it's the third incident in less than two months.
"The flooding tonight has caught everybody out," he posted on social media, describing it as "near catastrophic". "When I phoned the Council they had no warnings from SEPA or other agencies.
"Sandbags were sent for for Meikleholmside and elsewhere. The worst hit was the A7 at Ashley Bank and bottom of Hallpath."
And he added: "This time serious work needs to be done on our hillsides around Langholm because that is where the damage is coming from."
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It's understood locals worked to clear a storm drain which became "overwhelmed" around 9.30pm, despite being clear hours earlier.
With the road being a key route between the Scottish Borders and Carlisle, Councillor Male (Independent), who represents Annandale East and Eskdale on Dumfries and Galloway Council, believes it should have been declared a "major incident".
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"This is the third time in less than two months that local people have put their lives on the line trying to protect property and the travelling public," he explained.
"The River Esk did not burst its banks, the water all ran off the hills surrounding the town.
"This, during meetings with SEPA, has been highlighted time after time as an issue that needed urgent attention.
"However, all they could produce is a stupid (map) showing a national flood plain from the river."
In a direct appeal to residents, Councillor Male added: "I am asking you to demand an onsite meeting with SEPA, DG Council and emergency services to redraw the flood map for Langholm, and to put in place urgent measures to mitigate as far as possible the reoccurence of this very serious incident."
Dumfries and Galloway Council told Greatest Hits Radio the scenes of waterfalls pouring onto the A7 did not meet the threshold for declaring a major incident.
But the local authority said its Roads and Flood Risk Management teams are on site today, working alongside BEAR Scotland, to clear debris and restore safe access.
A spokesperson for the local authority said: "Dumfries and Galloway Council can confirm that last night’s localised flooding in Langholm was caused by exceptional run-off from surrounding hills, where ground conditions were already saturated following prolonged rainfall.
"Despite recent maintenance work to clear land drains, the sheer volume of water exceeded the capacity of the drainage system.
"The Local Resilience Partnership has robust procedures to assess such events, and Police Scotland – as the lead response agency – would have declared a major incident if appropriate."
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The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said there was no indiction flooding was likely in Dumfries and Galloway yesterday, so no flood alert was issued.
However, it admits more rain fell in parts of southern Scotland on December 17th than was expected.
“Conditions are actively monitored and updated throughout the day," a spokesperson explained. "With ground saturated from rainfall over the last two weeks, this led to localised surface water flooding.
"River levels on the River Esk did respond to the rainfall on Wednesday (17th December) but did not reach critical levels for the flood warning to be actively issued.
"SEPA do not issue flood warnings to warn of impacts from surface water."
Nevertheless, it added: "In partnership with the Met Office and other relevant public bodies, we continue to review data from this and all rainfall events to learn lessons which will help improve our ability to model and forecast potential flood events more accurately, to ensure we help Scotland prepare more for future flooding."
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