Council approves funding to help unlock potential of Dingwall Business Park

Last week at a meeting of The Highland Council members approved £150,000 of funding to go towards a nature restoration project that will help towards unlocking the potential of Dingwall Business Park.

The nature restoration project on the River Peffery adjacent to the Dingwall Business Park is being led by Lockett Agri Environmental, predominantly funded by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund.

The Highland Council funding will be used to support the work that will help to reduce flood risk within the Business Park, enhancing protection for existing Business Park users and potentially unlocking future development opportunities within the Business Park.

The Highland Councils’ Communities and Place Chairman and local Councillor, Graham MacKenzie said: “I very much welcome the decision to put money towards this important project. It’s really going to benefit the Business Park by helping to unlock the potential of the whole site and there is also the bonus of wider nature restoration works to the River Peffrey. This good news is just what Dingwall has been calling out for.”

This project seeks to establish a more natural alignment of the river channel which has been artificially straightened through previous agricultural and building works. This work will connect the river with its flood plain, and  reduce the erosive impacts of the river on the adjacent Business Park bunds, therefore reducing the risk of flooding to the Business Park users.

The proposed works at his location forms part of a wider, catchment scale project which aims to bring cumulative benefits to the River Peffery corridor, including enhanced biodiversity, carbon reduction and reduced flooding throughout the catchment including the town of Dingwall downstream. This is being achieved through peatland restoration, creation of wet woodlands, reconnecting the river with its floodplains and small scale flow attenuation. The flooding benefits are predominantly focussed on the reduction of the regular annual flooding events, primarily by slowing and storing peak flood flows within the flood plains. The natural flood management works will have less impact on larger scale, less frequent flood events within Dingwall.

The Highland Council’s Local Flood Risk Management Plan has identified flood risk within the River Peffery catchment and may progress a formal flood protection scheme in future years when cycle 2 of the Scottish Governments national programme is announced. A flood protection scheme would be complementary to the nature-based solutions proposed throughout the catchment, seeking to address impacts form from the larger flooding events. There will be formal consultation on any future scheme taken forward.