Financial uncertainty surrounds Moray Council’s flood alleviation schemes after a report predicted an ominous future for the local authority’s finances.
Chief financial officer Mark Palmer warned in a council report that more was to come following a proposed £8M budget cut.
Moray’s flood alleviation scheme is the biggest such project in Scotland with a total estimated cost of £150M, however, funding for the principal scheme at Elgin has yet to be confirmed. The council said work is at an advanced stage of design and will be the subject of a public enquiry in September.
Bob Stewart, Moray’s director of environmental services, told Surveyor: ‘We have managed well with the initial schemes so far. But our main concern to date is that we have managed to fund extra costs by using reserves. Then we get to the position where we don’t have the reserves for the Elgin scheme.’
Stewart explained that the local authority would have to rely on the next spending review but difficulties could arise because this unlikely to take place until 2011. The council argues that a year’s delay would increase costs for all parties involved.
‘We know there have been businesses in Elgin that have not been able to get insurance following the last floods. If there were to be a similar event [before the defence scheme is implemented] then these firms would go out of business,’ Stewart added.
The council has already implemented a smaller scheme in Lhanbryde and construction on multi-million pound projects in Forres and Rothes are underway. It expects the results from the Elgin public enquiry by the beginning of next year.
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