From the Perthshire Advertiser we learn that councils are bound by law to deal with flood risks by creation of hard flood defences. It's illegal to use natural landscape features to absorb floodwaters.

Commenting on the Minister’s response to his question, [Green MSP Mark] Ruskell said: “The existing flooding legislation from 1961 locks us into building expensive hard defences, which as we have seen recently with the Milnathort flood are not always effective.

Cui bono?

Surely the only beneficiaries of this legislation would have been the building companies and the politicians they sponsor.