Storm-damaged pier will be repaired, assures council

An Argyll and Bute spokesperson said: “Storm Eowyn had widespread impact across Argyll and Bute and our staff have worked tirelessly to clear up storm damage and assess where council infrastructure, such as roads, sea walls and piers, has been damaged.

“We are just waiting for the materials we have on order so we can make the repairs to Tayinloan Pier. In the meantime, barriers will be reinstated.”

It was revealed in a report this week that the storm could cost the council more than £7 million in road and infrastructure repairs across the local authority area.

Locations in all four administrative areas of the region were affected by the weather conditions, with three locations – Arrochar, Dunoon and Ormsary – identified as needing more extensive work to be carried out immediately on the weekend after the storm. 

The Arrochar repairs are listed as complete and within budget, while the other two remain ongoing.

A lengthy list of storm-damaged sites, on land and sea, were listed by council officials in a report that went before the authority’s environment, development and infrastructure committee at a meeting yesterday (Thursday).

Executive director Kirsty Flanagan said: “Given the potentially high cost of these works and likelihood that they would not receive funding through the Bellwin Scheme, a process of prioritisation and options appraisal is currently being undertaken.

“The prioritisation and options appraisal exercise aims to rank the works in order of importance, based on both the engineering assessment and the relative significance of each of the assets.

“The exercise will also provide repair options for each location that range from solutions that are fully engineered to modern standards incorporating a high level of future resilience through to more basic repairs methods that will provide a suitable repair while potentially not having the same level of future resilience.

“This approach is being taken in recognition that budgets are finite and those solutions that involve a higher degree of engineering may simply be unaffordable.

“At the present time, the cost estimates are believed to represent the higher limits of cost and it is expected that these costs will reduce significantly through the prioritisation and options appraisal process in order that an affordable programme of repairs can be implemented.”

Following a table listing all the storm-damaged sites, Ms Flanagan added: “The tables above demonstrate a cost of up to £7,320,000 to repair all damage resulting from Storm Eowyn to marine, road and coastal assets to a fully engineered standard.

“These costs are expected to reduce significantly as a range of repair options are considered for each location in order to develop a repair programme that is affordable within existing capital budgets.

“However, it is recognised that until the process of option reviews is complete, cost certainty will not be possible. There is also a risk that repairing all damaged assets to a desired level may simply not be possible within the finite resources available.

“While officers believe that the tables identify all roads and infrastructure assets damaged by Storm Eowyn, with such a large number and scale of assets there is a risk that further repair works are identified in the future through routine inspection activities.

“With the potential costs standing at such a high level, Storm Eowyn demonstrates very clearly the increasing financial impact of severe weather events, the increase in prevalence and severity of which, is linked by climate scientists to the effects of climate change and global warming.”