A young swimmer braved the cold of the River Tay yesterday to mark the

official opening of a transformed harbour.

Robert Saunderson, 17, performed the ceremony at Broughty Ferry

Harbour, Dundee.

Improvements have been carried out on the harbour area including

renewed paving, new protective railings on the harbour walls, new

seating and litter bins, reconstruction of the Beach Crescent approach

and a new car parking layout on the Castle approach road specifically

angled to give good views of the harbour area.

A high viewing tower has been created at the end of the west pier and

street lighting in the area has been refurbished.

Yesterday, Robert, of Queen Street, Broughty Ferry, holder of the

record for swimming the River Tay seven times continuously, swam into

the harbour and pulled the opening tape to unfurl the Dundee -- City of

Discovery flag atop the new viewing tower.

He said: ''The water is quite cold just now. This is something

different, but I've been swimming in the harbour lots of times.''

The improvement work was carried out by Scottish Enterprise Tayside,

Dundee District Council and Tayside Regional Council working together in

the Dundee Partnership.

Scottish Enterprise Tayside contributed #152,000 towards the project

with #118,000 from Dundee District Council and #44,000 from Tayside

Regional Council.

A further stage in the improvements has been the installation of

floodlighting of nearby Broughty Ferry Castle.

The #25,000 cost was met by Scottish Enterprise Tayside and the

running and maintenance costs will be met by Dundee District Council.