Dingwall Business Park potential to be ‘unlocked’ by River Peffery project
AN end to years of frustration over the stalled development of a key business park in Ross-shire’s county town could be in sight.
In an announcement hailed by a veteran councillor as “just what Dingwall has been calling out for”, the local authority has approved £150,000 towards a nature restoration project aimed at helping unlock potential at the edge-of-town business park.The cash will go towards a nature restoration project on the River Peffery adjacent to the Dingwall Business Park led by locally based Lockett Agri Environmental. That work is predominantly funded by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund.
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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 users “and potentially unlocking future development opportunities” there.
Lack of work on the outdated flood protection bund down the years has resulted in a situation where new businesses wanting to locate in the park have faced flood risk objections from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) - ironically itself located there.
The issue has been a bitter bone of contention for years and undoubtedly stalled local economic development.
The Highland Council’s 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.”
The 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 idea is that 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 Government’s 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.
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