The council said that developing a flood protection scheme for Campbeltown will not only cut down on flood risk, but also deliver financial and economic benefits for homeowners and businesses by avoiding property damage.

The environment, development and infrastructure committee agreed the next stage to progress Campbeltown Flood Protection Scheme (CFPS) on Thursday. The full business case will be developed and invitation to tender issued for the construction of the main flood scheme and supply and installation of property flood resilience measures.

The scheme involves a flood storage area in Millknowe and a partial upsizing on the surface water culvert running along Dalaruan Street, from the proposed storage area. In addition surface water management will be implemented to other areas within the town at The Meadows and Burnside Square to further reduce the risk of flooding to the town.

Property Flood Resilience (PFR) will also be provided to some properties to improve the standard of protection offered by the scheme. These could include barriers on windows and doors; use of non-return valves to prevent backing-up of floodwaters; automatically closing airbricks; and small pump systems.

Long-term benefits of the scheme for the town include:

• Improved local resident’s health and wellbeing by reducing stress associated with flooding
• Reduced risk of flooding at the police and fire stations.
• Reduced flooding within the Campbeltown Conservation Area which is home to a number of listed buildings maintain cultural heritage of the area for future
• Reduced risk to key roads within Campbeltown improving accessibility for residents and emergency services during storms
• Greater community engagement in understanding flood risk
• Reduced load on the sewer network therefore reduced risk of manhole flooding and associated health impacts

The Scottish Government is expected to fund 80% of scheme costs up to a total project cost of £9.330 million, resulting in Scottish Government funding £7.464m and the council contributing £1.866m.

Councillor Rory Colville, policy lead for roads and infrastructure services, said: “I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed their views and ideas to the scheme to date. There are some excellent plans in place which, if funding is approved by the Scottish Government, will make a massive difference to Campbeltown and the wellbeing of its residents.”