Glasgow could face more flooding when Storm Dudley hits as the city’s street cleansing service has been “obliterated”, a union rep has claimed.
Chris Mitchell, from the GMB, has backed a call from Cllr Jill Brown for more preventative action to stop repeated localised flooding.
READ MORE: Glasgow's 'short sighted' flood prevention criticised by councillor after heavy rain
The cleansing rep said residents shouldn’t have to wait for problems to occur before gullies and drains are cleared.
A council spokeswoman said extra work had been carried out ahead of the forecast storm and preventative measures are taken on a day-to-day basis.
Mr Mitchell claimed: “The reason you’ve got localised flooding is the street cleansing has been obliterated and abandoned over five years.
“There’s just not the capability to clean the gullies like we used to. We’ve got a storm coming in and there will be a detrimental effect to the public and that’s down to council cuts.”
The council said the budget for street cleansing had been increased in recent years.
After heavy rain over the weekend, Cllr Brown said pavements became “impassable” and the council was “short-sighted” for waiting “until the damage is done”.
In response, the council said a “targeted” system of gully cleaning was introduced at the end of last year in “areas which are most prone to the problem”.
But Mr Mitchell, who said flooding can be a “danger to life” and that “people’s properties are getting ruined”, believes the targeted approach is “a cover for the cuts”.
He said the council “should be going to make people safe”. “You shouldn’t have to wait for a problem. What if someone is seriously hurt?”
The union rep also hit out at a £700,000 private lanes fund set up by the council, which gives grants to community groups to improve the condition of back lanes.
“That’s public money that should be in the cleansing service,” he said, adding the council “should be ashamed”.
Cllr Brown, who represents Partick East/Kelvindale, added: “It is clear that years of budget cuts mean there are simply not enough staff on the ground cleaning the streets, clearing the gullies and keeping the drains unblocked.
“While the SNP administration has introduced a few jobs to manage enquiries from residents, this is papering over the cracks. Residents don’t want pie charts and presentations; they want to be able to walk safely along the pavement.”
However, the council spokeswoman said: “We carry out both preventative and reactive gully cleaning and have additional resources in place to tackle flooding which might arise due to the forecast storms.
“On a day-to-day basis, we have two dedicated gully cleaning machines which are on the road 24/7 and we’re increasing our resilience by bringing in multi-change body vehicles, which are gritters in the winter then convert to gully cleaners in the summer to carry out additional preventative maintenance.
“The new system of targeted gully cleaning was introduced at the end of last year to tackle localised flooding in areas which are most prone to the problem. This ensures that areas which are susceptible to flooding get extra visits.
“Extra technicians have also been assigned to gully inspections to monitor silt build up and data from flooding reports is being used to pinpoint locations which require additional gully changing and leaf sweeping during the autumn.”
She encouraged the public to report any repeat incidents of localised flooding via the council website.
