Peter Farrer welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced key SW representatives.

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1 Note of Bathgate Public Meeting Peter Farrer welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced key SW representatives. Mark McEwen ran through the actions arising from the previous meeting. It was then explained what activity had taken place in the last week. We recognised there was some frustration at the previous meeting that a firm commitment could not be given at that stage to taking the main out of service permanently, however, after a couple of days of modelling and analysis, SW had determined that this was possible and an announcement to that effect had been made on Thursday. The 1.3KM length of pipe has been emptied and will not be put back into use again meaning that risk of failure has gone forever. We recognised customers would still be concerned if the pipe was replaced. Referring to maps in the hall, it was explained that a section of water main in green would also be isolated and that SW would be making some further investment affecting a 4KM stretch. A number of actions would be taken and SW was working on a plan. It was confirmed that 28 properties had been affected 18 internally and 10 externally, with 13 decanted. Residents were either in short term lets or the Premier Inn and three had properties to go into. SW was dealing with customers in relation to insurance on an individual basis. 38 ex-gratia offers had been made. 33 had been agreed and we were waiting for others to be agreed. The key thing was for us to work with insurance companies and get work done as soon as possible. With regards the reinstatement, the work carried out in the last week was highlighted. The playpark had been reinstated and re-turfed and we were working through all the outstanding works to fully restore the area. Contractors were working on parts of the lane. Further work was to be done to the drainage system and we would be doing some further test digs. An assessment of retaining walls was to be done and small areas with chips were to be replaced etc. The burst site itself has significant reinstatement work to be done. Q&A Q1. Question regarding reinstatement of path We will be restoring all of that. The gulley drains need to be cleaned out. French drain which was washed away will be reinstated. Q2. Does the water main date back to British Leyland days or the building of the Wester Inch village? In Bathgate there s been much undermining historically history with pits/mining etc. That might have caused some sinkage? The pipe is 45-years-old so before the housing development. That is generally not old for a cast iron pipe. We have 100-year-old cast iron pipes still performing as well. We have commissioned an investigation into root cause failure. An independent lab is doing testing. There was a horizontal fracture in the pipe. We are trying to understand whether the failure was due to the pipe or anything else. At the moment there is nothing linked to subsidence or mine workings but investigations are still taking place. It is expected to take two to three weeks to get results. We have had a number of assets affected by mine workings in the past, but generally you will see impact on the topography before it impacts on the assets.

2 Q3. We believe there may be more than one pipeline that lies adjacent in that area. With the 2012 burst there was a loss of supply to the village itself but there was no loss of supply after these recent incidents. In 2012 the flooding was every bit as severe. Can you confirm if there was only one pipeline in that place? There is only one pipeline here a 27-inch pipe. There are smaller distribution pipes along the route. If anything happened to those pipes it would not cause any issue. There is another pipe a 700ml pipe on the other side of the dual carriageway. The reason we maintained supplies this time was because we operated different valves. This maintained supplies. There are no other significant pipes running in an east-west direction on this side of the embankment. We have detailed network diagrams we can show with network connections. That whole section is now out of service well beyond where it happened. We are carrying out further checks on the network as part of our plans for permanent isolation and will verify the location of the mains. Q4. Are you going to renew the pipe? If the 700ml pipe was to rupture we could see the same scenario again. What safeguards are there? That pipe was installed more recently (in around 1999). It s ductile iron a different material and performs in a different way. If pipes are really old they can corrode but not the same dramatic failure as cast iron. We have flow and pressure monitoring in place. We check pressure to check they are not at such a level that they cause issues with pipes. We are doing additional monitoring. We are also looking at putting in burst control valves or other measures to prevent a loss of water from that part of the network. That should provide more confidence. Q5. For the benefit of the insurance companies could something be done/produced? We have committed to giving residents a written letter to say that we have permanently isolated that section of main and therefore completely eliminated the risk of flooding from that pipe which should give these companies the information they need. There s no reason anybody should have ongoing issues with insurance. We have taken the risk away. We have people here from our loss adjustors who can to speak to you about any issues you may have. Q6. Is there still going to be a point of contact for one-to-ones? Myself and neighbour battled away after both bursts to prevent water coming on property. Garden has died off due to foot traffic. There will be somebody on site. Let us know which property. We will maintain presence with caravan. As said before, we will carry out any all reinstatements that are required, just let us know. Q7. We (Wester Inch Flood Support & Info Group) have listed a whole lot of considerations from residents on insurance and liability of loss in future. We have put this to Scottish Water in writing. Thank you. We will discuss these later and respond. Q8. In Mossside Terrace Area after the Wednesday burst there was a lot of stuff in the gullies. Can you make sure they are cleared?

3 We will work with the council to make sure all gullies in the area are cleared. Q9. Question regarding compensation packages We are doing this on a one-to-one basis. We have put in place a tiered system which is dependent on how badly affected someone is. There are those who have been inconvenienced, experienced external flooding and those where people have had internal flooding and also those decanted form their properties. These are ex-gratia payments. We have also paid for a number of other direct costs incurred by affected residents such as insurance excesses. Q10. What do you mean by inconvenienced? We recognise there are those were directly and significantly impacted by the flooding. We also recognise that there were a number of customers adjacent who were not flooded but were impacted and inconvenienced. In the normal course of events we would not have made a payment but we recognise that given the impact of two events in succession that it s the right thing to do. For example, there were upstairs flats with no damage but they could not get out. They have been given an inconvenience payment. We have made this assessment based on the location of properties and the impact on occupants and we don t think we have missed anyone out, however, if you think you have been then please speak to us at the end of the meeting. Q11. Can the insurance letter be made general? Problems won t surface until next January when renewal comes up. We will work with you on that. We will provide a letter which people can use as they see fit which confirms we have removed section of main and there s no risk of failures now. We will draft that up and make it available. Q12. Will you get in contact with SEPA about flood risk in relation to the whole area? It s for SEPA to determine area for surface water flooding. There is a whole number of areas across West Lothian on SEPA s flood map from river and surface water. We will tell them we have taken the risk away from flooding form the water main. Q14 (comment from Councillor). I had similar concerns about insurance. Peter has agreed to put this letter out about removing flood risk completely. My concern is going forward when premiums go up. Risk assessment is no greater than it was prior to previous events. We cannot change things retrospectively with SEPA flooding plan but we want to make sure no individuals are penalised because of these circumstances. Because risk has been removed completely. I would hope to speak to flood prevention officers from West Lothian Council to see if they could support that. We do not want to impact on property prices and people not moving to Bathgate. If we can get these statements from SEPA and the council that would be excellent. This is an excuse for insurance companies to say we can justify risk with increase. It is about knowing who is having issues. I am prepared to help. Q15. I am curious as to timescales for work?

4 We only concluded the fact we can isolate this section of main on Thursday. Since then we have been looking at the works required. We have a number of road crossings to put in. There are cross connections to be established and capped off. One carriageway will require to be shut down. The initial design work should be concluded this Tuesday or Wednesday. Timescales for the works to be carried out depend on getting access. I am sure the council will support us. We will provide an update to the community on the detail of the works and timescales when available. Q16. What is the condition of the embankment and is there a risk We had to cut quite far back into the embankment to carry out the repair. That excavation has been backfilled and then reinstated. We have more work to do as we need to remove some of the gravel and replace that with top soil to finish off the embankment. The carriageway lane above the excavation was shut whilst the works were taking place but that has been reopened. We have no concerns over its condition but given the question has been raised we will speak to council and ask them to carry out assessment of embankment and if any more work is required. Q18. Can you let the residents know what is going on? Some of this is right outside my door and this is the first I have heard about the testing of the walls. A number of people asked questions about the stability of the wall including the Factor for the site. It was because of that we asked for structural survey, as we could see that there were minor cracks and repointing but we don t know if more work is required. There are a number of small holes that will be dug along the base of the wall to check it out. As and when we know more we will update residents. It s similar to the point raised earlier about the embankment, someone has asked a question about its stability so we need to investigate and respond. Q19. Thanks for coming back to us about the isolation of the main. Now the main things are out of the way it s about what s going to happen in future. Subsidence. Will monoblock start sinking? If anything else happens that s attributed to this flooding we won t walk away from that and will deal with it. Q20. Liability SW has been seen to be doing quite a lot. Important the word liability is included in letter. As far as insurers are concerned a statement of liability would give some comfort. That s why we are going to create the letter. We have statutory liability so I am sure we can set that out appropriately in the letter we discussed earlier. Q21. Can t people go straight through you? It s how insurance claims work. If you smash your car your insurance company will rectify problem then claim it back. The same applies here, your insurers will determine the extent to which they will seek to recover costs from us. Q22. Capping off the 27 inch main. Will there be sufficient water supply?

5 Yes. There are things we need to do. There are some minor upgrades and modifications needed in the area to ensure that we maintain security of supply going forward. We will also be looking at a number of options to provide long term strategic security of supply which includes bringing more water from the east to reduce the need for water to flow from the west via this area into Bathgate and areas to the east. These longer term changes and upgrades do not prevent us from getting on with the works to isolate the section of main in Wester Inch. Question from SW to customers Sandbags can we get rid of them? Yes. We have individual on site all night. He does walk rounds four times a night. Can we stand that down? We will schedule a night time visit to check things over. Yes but as long as we make sure unoccupied properties are checked. Audience suggestion made re council speaking to Police Scotland about more regular controls. [Please note that these are not verbatim notes and some questions & answers may have been combined]