SIX paper snowflakes dangle in the front windows, but there is no
snow, no fir tree, no tinsel: just a sea of sludge-brown water where the
front and back gardens and the ground floor of the house used to be.
Robert McKay was wearing his tracksuit trousers pulled up to the knee
and paddling barefoot. ''No, I'm no' cold, it's fine when you get used
to it.''
However unseasonably mild, it is still Paisley in December. He has
four children aged from three to 12 convinced that Santa is more than
equal to a bit of water in the living room.
''We moved in on December 23 last year, just in time for Christmas and
we thought this was a great house. We won't be celebrating Christmas in
it this year. I would not be surprised if the family is out of the house
for six months,'' he said.
0 Edward Farrell, 52, said: ''The three-piece suite is destroyed, the
carpets are wrecked and we're still paying for them all. Insurance? We
cannae afford insurance. We'll need to start all over again.''
The most bitter aspect to the flooding at Ferguslie Park is that the
worst-affected houses are all new or refurbished.
The neat development of semi-detached two-storey houses in Blackstone
Road with front and back doors might grace the glossy brochure of any
modern developer. This is the new Ferguslie Park, built by the Ferguslie
Park Housing Association on the site of demolished council houses.
A proportion of houses are adapted for elderly and disabled people:
because they all have ground floor flats and bungalows they have been
the worst-affected.
Lynn McCulloch, director of the Ferguslie Park Housing Association,
said structural damage would be covered by the association's insurance,
but tenants would be liable for their own belongings.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article