Draft Flood Prevention Orders to be Published

Members of the TEC Services Committee have approved engineered drawings for three Inverness flood prevention schemes and one Lochaber flood prevention scheme incorporating draft Flood Prevention Orders.  These plans for River Ness, River Lochy and Caol, Dell Burn and Millburn will shortly be published and open for objection for a period of 90 days.

The process and procedure for the Draft Flood Prevention Orders and the making of the Flood Prevention Orders are controlled by the Scottish Government.  Any objections received to the draft orders may be subject to a Public Inquiry which will delay the process of getting statutory consents.

If successful the schemes, which total £14.5 million, will each be eligible for a grant of up to 80% from the Scottish Government.

Following these discussions, Councillor went on to approved an alternative to the original proposal surrounding flood prevention at Acharacle in Lochaber which involves the development of a scheme to raise the level of Moss Road to ensure access is maintained during periods of flooding.  Under the Council’s current Capital Programme, funding for this particular scheme is only available for design costs.  The report presented to Councillors highlighted that the Director of Planning and Development had been consulted and flood issues will be taken into account when considering applications for development in the area.

Later in the meeting the Flood Prevention Works at Mallaig were also discussed and the committee decided to allocate £100k from the Council’s flood alleviation budget for 2008/09 to construct flood defences between the gaps in the Fisherman’s Stores in Mallaig to provide protection to community facilities and local businesses.