Renfrew flood defence review launched after Storm Boelo damage

The extreme conditions led to flooding affecting 13 businesses in Renfrew and caused extensive damage to the southern plant room controlling the £117 million Renfrew Bridge, leaving the swing bridge inoperable for months while investigations and repairs continue.

Council officials will now undertake a joint review with SEPA and other agencies to establish why actual river levels differed so sharply from forecasts and whether warning systems, forecasting arrangements, operational protocols, and wider flood resilience measures need to change.

The report says the highest tidal forecasts available to the council, adjusted for local land levels, predicted water levels between 2.2m and 2.42m. Those figures were well below the thresholds used to trigger action under the North Renfrew Flood Prevention Scheme, where staff deploy to monitor conditions at 3.6m, and flood barriers are raised at 3.9m.

In reality, the evening tide reached 4.49m, exceeding all forecasts and setting a new high-water mark for the location.

(Image: NQ)

Officials say the flood barriers were not activated because established procedures, based on previous flood events, risk assessments and operational experience, did not indicate intervention was necessary. The council notes that since 2016, 45 amber and red weather warnings have affected the Strathclyde area without any flood alerts reaching the activation threshold.

Of the 13 businesses affected by flooding, eight are located riverside of the barriers on Ferry Road and would have been impacted regardless of whether the defences had been deployed, according to the report.

The council said it had offered support and assistance to all affected businesses it could contact, including waste removal services. Ten of the 13 businesses are understood to have resumed trading.

The extreme conditions led to flooding affecting 13 businesses in Renfrew (Image: FoundryGym)

The report also stresses that problems at Renfrew Bridge were unrelated to decisions over flood barrier deployment.

The bridge, which opened in May 2025, remains within its two-year defects period. Contractors and the council's insurers are investigating whether a construction defect contributed to the significant water ingress that damaged operational equipment.

As part of the review, officials will examine whether lowering the activation threshold for flood barriers could provide greater protection in future, although this could also result in more frequent precautionary closures during events that ultimately pose little risk.

Temporary measures have already been introduced, reducing the threshold for deploying operational teams to assess conditions and allowing barriers to be raised earlier if required.

Gordon McNeil, Renfrewshire Council's director of environment, housing and infrastructure, said the report set out "the facts surrounding the response to Storm Boelo, the information available and the decisions taken as a result".

He added: "While the report shows in some detail that officers followed the established procedures correctly, based on the information they were provided with by partners as part of established planning arrangements, it is important we work with our partners to understand why the forecasting was significantly different from what we subsequently experienced.

"The council, like all local and national governments, must also consider whether, in the event climate impacts are increasing in severity, we should introduce a more prudent approach to our operational procedures to protect residents and businesses from this uncertainty as best we can."

The £10m North Renfrew Flood Prevention Scheme was completed in 2016 and includes a pumping station, a 1km embankment and flood barriers at Ferry Road and Fishers Road designed to protect homes, businesses and infrastructure from tidal flooding.