TWO flood protection schemes, which aim to protect hundreds of homes, are being awarded almost £40 million of Scottish Government funding.
The money will cover 80% of the total cost of the schemes in Brechin, Angus, and Selkirk in the Borders.
The Scottish Government is also contributing £500,000 towards the cost of fixing damage caused by severe tides and flooding in Dumfries and Galloway earlier this year.
The one-off award will help pay for repairs to river banks, sea walls and coastal paths.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Paul Wheelhouse said: "Communities living under threat of flooding know only too well the devastating effects it can have - as recently seen in Dumfries and Galloway. That is why flooding remains a priority for the Scottish Government.
"More than £38.5m Scottish Government funding for new flood protection schemes in Brechin and Selkirk - a significant investment, which will allow the councils involved to start the tendering process and bring these schemes to fruition.
"I look forward to seeing the undoubted positive impact of these works for residents and businesses in these communities." Under the flood protection scheme funding arrangement agreed with Cosla, 80% of the total cost of approved projects is funded by the Scottish Government, with the remaining 20% funded at local authority level.
The £31.8m Selkirk Flood Protection Scheme will protect around 650 properties against flood events from the Ettrick and Yarrow Waters, the Philiphaugh Mill Lade, the Long Philip Burn and the Shaw Burn.
Construction is due to get under way in autumn 2014 and is scheduled to conclude in late 2016.
The Brechin project, which will cost £16.4m in total, will protect around 150 properties and consist of direct defences, flood embankments and flood walls, drainage system upgrades and three submerged pump stations.
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