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COUNCILLORS in a town ravaged by flooding have been drawing up prevention plans for 60 years – but failed to introduce any of them.

They’re now looking at a £15million scheme to stop the notorious River Nith flooding in Dumfries town centre, which causes chaos year after year.

But one of the solutions available to councillors was handed to them in 1956 and would have cost £30,000 to implement – £500,000 in today’s money.

And since 1988, a flood prevention scheme for the Whitesands area of the town has been looked at and updated four times but never acted upon.

Parts of that proposal formed the multi-million-pound solution now being looked at by Dumfries and Galloway Council after they backed it in November last year.

One council boss says the most recent floods should serve as a call to action after previous leaders “bottled it”.

Labour councillor Colin Smyth said the £15million plan had been agreed by the authority and that 80 per cent funding would be needed from the Scottish Government.

He added: “Councillors have ducked the issue, because there have been public objections to some of the proposals.

“They have simply bottled it. This administration are not prepared to put up with the fact that Dumfries remains the largest town in Scotland that floods on a regular basis.

“That is unacceptable. What has happened in the last few days should focus people’s minds.”

Dumfries saw one of its worst floods on record this week, while devastating flooding in 2009 caused £5million worth of damage.

And authorities issued a threat-to-life warning for the Whitesands area, which flooded for the third time this winter on Wednesday.

Most of the 48 traders in the area were hit, with many residents needing to be rescued by boat on Wednesday night as five-foot deep floodwaters devastated homes and businesses.

Even in years when conditions aren’t as extreme, the River Nith usually floods several times.

A report to Dumfries Town Council, dated March 3, 1956, details a report prepared by civil engineering consultants Babtie, Shaw and Morton.

It says: “We have prepared a scheme indicating one possibility we think would stop flooding except at times when conditions are almost phenomenal.”

Like the most recent report, the 1956 document featured a plan to build a higher riverside walkway to prevent the river reaching the road.

In a report to councillors in September 2007, the council’s then infrastructure manager Bill Barker said a £4.3million scheme had been proposed by the regional council in 1988.

But it was deemed that the overall impact “would not be acceptable”.

Despite several updates, the plans were shelved because they were “inadequate to determine” if the benefits of a flood prevention scheme would outweigh the cost.