A PROMENADE is to be closed to the public during the highest tides after a study found people were at risk from large waves sweeping over the seawall.
Scottish Borders Council said the promenade at Eyemouth will be blocked to the public when coastal flood alerts are issued.
Last year two teenage girls were swept from the harbour wall at Eyemouth by a 20ft swell. One of the girls, Katie MacLean, was in a coma for a week.
After a study into "overtopping" along the structure, the promenade will be closed when flood warnings are made by the harbour master or by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).
Police and council officials will enforce the temporary barriers, and warning signs will also be erected.
The risk was uncovered after an earlier structural and maintenance study recommended a subsequent overtopping assessment. The cost to implement its recommendations is £11,000.
Gordon Edgar, of the council's roads and infrastructure committee, said: "Once the council was made aware of the risk to pedestrians we organised a plan of action and consultation with the local community and emergency responders to inform how the seawall promenade could be made safe during a wave overtopping event.
"We have now noted the findings of the Eyemouth Seawall Wave Overtopping and Flood Study and are taking actions with respect to pedestrian safety.
"As an immediate action, we will ensure that temporary barriers are deployed by local neighbourhood services staff to close off the seawall promenade to the public in the event of a coastal flood warning being issued by SEPA or the harbour master, to ensure people are protected."
The council is looking at the regeneration of Eyemouth, the coastal and river flood risk. The future of the seawall is a key focus.
Eyemouth is one of 28 locations in Scotland to be involved in a SEPA coastal flood warning project.
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