Agenda item

Consider report by Service Director Assets and Infrastructure.  (Copy attached.)

With reference to paragraph 6 of the Minute of 2 March 2017, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Assets and Infrastructure requesting that the Council make a Preliminary Decision to confirm the proposed Hawick Flood Protection Scheme 2017 (the Scheme) with no modifications, under the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 (the FRM) and the Flood Risk Management (Flood Protection Schemes, Potentially Vulnerable Areas and Local Plan Districts) (Scotland) Regulations 2010; as the Scheme required an Environmental Impact Assessment.  It was also proposed to delegate further authority to continue the Statutory Approvals Processes, the Scheme’s Detailed Design and preparation for the Advanced Works.  The report explained that as part of the Scheme being approved under the FRM it was required to give notice of the Scheme in accordance with Paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 of the FRM.  The date the notice was published under Paragraph 1 (1) (a) was 18 April 2017.  The 28-Day Objection Period concluded on 29 May 2017 and forty eight objections were received to the Scheme.  All objections were deemed to be a ‘valid objection’ as defined within the FRM.  The project team, including the Chief Legal Officer, undertook a detailed analysis and consideration of the topics within the objections.  The Project Team provided a detailed reply to every topic identified in every objection and then engaged with the objectors who had expressed an interest in further discussions and meetings.  It was clear from the meetings with objectors that there were some common misinterpretations of what was being proposed by the Scheme, so the Project Team undertook a series of public events to enable the community to obtain a clear understanding of the proposals and raise any topics of concern.  The Project Team believed that these evenings were successful and gave objectors and supporters the chance to express their views in a public forum. The Project Team believed that all of the points raised in the objections were answered by the mitigation strategies in the suite of published document to provide a balanced scheme to meet all of the project objectives from a national, Council and local perspective.  The way forward for the scheme had been developed following the strong interest within the community to be part of the detailed design phase, so Design Working Groups and a Traffic Management Working Group would be formed.  The Project Board agreed that the Project Team had fully and robustly considered the objections and determined that no modifications were required. The parallel processes of Deemed Planning and the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (i.e. CAR licence) had progressed well with the CAR licence being issued on 18 September 2017.  It was noted that before making a Preliminary Decision on a flood protection scheme with an Environmental Statement the Council must consider the environmental information to comply with Regulation 10 (3) of the FRM’s 2010 Regulations and state in their decision that they had done so.  Members spoke in support of the Scheme and noted that a further report would be brought to Council in December.

DECISION

AGREED to :-

(a)     note the progress made with the project since the update in February 2017;

(b)     make a Preliminary Decision to confirm the proposed Hawick Flood Protection Scheme 2017 with no modification, under the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 and the Flood Risk Management (Flood Protection Schemes, Potentially Vulnerable Areas and Local Plan Districts) (Scotland) Regulations 2010; as the Scheme required an Environmental Impact Assessment;

(c)     confirm that the Council had taken into account the environmental information as detailed in section 7 of the report; and

(d)     provide the Scheme’s Project Executive with the authority to commence the preparations for the Advanced Works and the Detailed Design stages to allow the project to stay on programme. 

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Councillor Robson declared an interest in the above item of business in terms of Section 5 of the Councillors Code of Conduct and left the Chamber during the discussion.