Scots govt offers £1.8m to repair damaged flood banks

Farmers in Scotland affected by severe flooding this autumn are being offered grants of up to £30,000 to help repair damaged manmade flood banks.

Those who farm in the areas worst hit by flooding, including Moray, Perth and Kinross, Aberdeenshire, City of Aberdeen and Angus, will be eligible to apply.

See also: Storm Babet wreaks flooding havoc on Scottish farms

Scottish rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon will provide details of the new funding while addressing delegates at AgriScot, which is taking place at the Royal Highland Centre on Wednesday 22 November.

Commenting ahead of her speech, Ms Gougeon said: “I’ve seen first-hand the devastating impacts that flooding had on our rural communities from storm events last month. Those same communities continue to deal with the after-effects to this day.

“Repairing damaged flood banks is a crucial step to safeguarding rural communities and land from any future extreme weather events.

“That is why we are providing £1.8m in support to help ease the financial burden on farmers affected by floods.”

NFU Scotland (NFUS) welcomed the announcement, but said Scottish government must extend the scheme to ensure extensive riverbank repairs can be carried out.

The union has already raised with Scottish government the need for riverbank restoration to be included in the scheme. While not man-made, some of the worst damage in the recent flooding saw large areas of riverbank completely eroded, it noted.

NFUS president Martin Kennedy said: “We are still gathering data from farmers affected by the floods, but it is already clear that the cost of repair and restoration, alongside the damage, debris removal and crop loss, will leave the farming industry with a bill that runs to several millions.

“We already have examples of flood bank breaches ranging from 5m to 50m that will need reinstatement.

“We also have examples of riverbank erosion stretching to more than 500m and that is why it is important that they are recognised in the scheme to allow banks to be strengthened and returned to their original height.”

River maintenance need

Mr Kennedy said much of the flooding could have been avoided if farmers had been allowed to carry out regular river maintenance to remove gravel and silt from strategic pinch points on our rivers at no cost to the taxpayer, as they did in the past.

Scottish government and NatureScot also needed to recognise that, in some instances, the scale of damage was exacerbated by growing beaver activity, burrowing into and significantly weakening long established floodbanks, he added.

The scheme will open for applications next month and will be administered by the Scottish government.

Further details will be published on the Rural Payments and Services website.