A FLOOD protection scheme for Tillicoultry will be put forward for SEPA national prioritisation.

Elected members at Clackmannanshire Council will tomorrow hear that the town, which is most at risk from rising waters in the Wee County, has three sources of flooding in the River Devon, Tillicoultry Burn as well as an unnamed burn.

A technically-feasible and economically-viable flood protection scheme, arising from a study as part of the Forth Flood Risk Management Plan, will be submitted to SEPA.

The environment protection agency will then consider whether to include it in the second cycle of Local Flood Risk Management Plans between 2022-28 and how to prioritise it.

Council papers highlight the flood risk from the unnamed burn, which meets the Devon around Elistoun Drive, has already been mitigated by the raising of the Mixed Leisure Route around a decade ago.

Further mitigation came with the formation of the Tillicoultry, Devonside, Coalsnaugton (TIDECO) community flood resilience group, which already saw action this April after torrential rains swept parts of the Wee County.

Fresh plans call for measures around both the Devon and Tilly Burn.

For the former, the aforementioned Mixed Leisure Route which is near Elistoun Drive would be raised by another 300mm.

The informal embankment at Sterling Furniture would be replaced by a larger and better designed embankment, extending 240metres, and flood walls, as long as 500m, would be constructed on both left and right banks adjacent to Sterling Mills.

Defences at Tillicoultry Burn would involve raising the burn wall by 900m and road raising works at the entrance to Hareburn Road.

According to the study carried out for the plans, 45 properties are at risk of internal flooding from the River Devon and 131 are at risk from Tilly Burn for floods the size that have a one in 200 chance of occurring in any given year.

Damages would be in the order of £3.8million and £3.6m respectively in the once every 200 years scenario.

The council submission will also argue that with Tilly having higher levels of social deprivation against the Scottish average, flood protection should be prioritised in the Hillfoots town compared to more affluent areas.

And the business disruption and associated costs to Sterling Mills and the furniture store "should not be underestimated", even if it cannot be in the economic appraisal.

Documents added: "These sites are an important source of employment to the town and the business disruption of continued flooding should be noted."

However, the costs associated with the scheme would be high and SEPA prioritises based on the benefit to cost ratio.

This must be higher than 1.0 – specifically this means the cost of flood damage avoided must be more than the money going into defences.

The combined ratio for the two projects, which will be put forward as one scheme, is 1.1.

Council papers added: "As this is not a particularly high benefit/cost ratio it is likely that the Tillicoultry Flood Scheme will have a low priority."