Aberdeenshire Council took its first steps towards understanding how our communities should adapt to increasing sealevels and coastal erosion, when the Infrastructure Services Committee accepted the proposed Regional Coastal Change Adaptation Plan (RCCAP).
Coastal Change Action Plans (CCAPs) identify areas at risk from coastal flooding, along with possible triggers to take action – and what those subsequent actions might be. These could include no intervention, replenishing natural defences, designing new defences and making space by relocating assets to a safer distance from the coastline – rebuild Stonehaven’s leisure centre on higher ground perhaps?
At Thursday’s meeting on 19 June, councillors heard the CCAP exercise should hopefully unlock funding streams but it still needs to be achievable. For our area, Gourdon and Inverbervie fits the deliverable bill.
So what about Stonehaven?
Stonehaven appears the most vulnerable community in the Shire, with 1600 properties at risk of flooding. Along with other ‘Potentially Vulnerable Areas‘ across Scotland, the town’s flood risks have already been considered – with proposed measures described in our district’s Local Flood Risk Management Plan (LFRMP).
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) issues such plans for districts across Scotland in six-year cycles. Cycle One ran from 2016 to 2022 and included the River Carron Protection Work, completed in 2023 to the tune of £22 million. Not all projects were completed and many went eye-wateringly over budget. Lessons must be learned.
It should be noted that SEPAs flood maps do not yet reflect the protection afforded by the Carron works – that update is expected by the end of the next six-year cycle, that is the end of 2031.
Meanwhile, proposals aimed at coastal flooding and the Farrochie Burn feature in the latest North East LFRMP for the years 2022-2028, published in January 2023.
There was a delay in issuing the document as the Council was waiting for confirmation of Government funding for this second cycle of projects.
They still are.
Is any funding for cycle two going to be forthcoming?
Mairi Gougeon MSP said: “Flood resilience is a matter for local authorities and, given budgets are allocated on an annual basis, it is not possible to set out what budgets beyond 2026 will look like, though the Medium term Financial Strategy is due to be published by the Scottish Government on the 25 June.
“I will always advocate for the areas I represent in getting the support that they need and it’s clear from SEPA’s flood risk assessments that Stonehaven and many other areas across Angus North and Mearns are at risk from future flood events as we experience worsening extreme weather.”
While the wheels spin on Cycle Two there has been a change in approach by the Scottish Government
In December 2024, The Scottish Government published its National Flood Resilience Strategy.
In her Ministerial foreword, Gillian Martin MSP states: ”Building on the success of our Flood Risk Management Plans, the Strategy will look at the flood resilience challenges we face in the much longer term recognising that some of the changes that we need to make will take decades to implement.
”Over that period the Strategy will enable the change from trying to stop flooding impacting on our activities to creating flood resilient places where our activities are adapted to the flood risk that we face.”
What is resilience and adaptation?
The National Flood Resilience Strategy uses child-like spot-the-difference images to save the use of difficult words:
Interventions must take place but require external funding
Speaking at Thursday’s Infrastructure Services Committee Cllr Dawn Black said she was reassured to better understand the work that would take place in CCAPs as, when presented to the Area Committee, the topic had appeared concerning.
She said: ”However there is still that word ‘retreat’ that is outlined in the National Strategy and has come through into this – and you know the trend is going to be towards that managed retreat, especially with sea levels rising, that allows the sea to take some things.
”But then obviously we’re a coastal community, we have towns and villages that are sited at sea level right on the coast, so we can’t just let those go.”
Saying she wanted to reassure those who had concerns about post-2050 predictions, Ms Black added: ”Are we just going to give up? No, we still need to be doing interventions from previous studies and making sure those interventions will take place – albeit we need to find external funding for that.”
Committee chair Cllr Alan Turner brought in Roads and Infrastructure head Philip McKay, who said he understood concerns – and that his training in risk management pointed towards the removal of sources of risk. He said when thinking about a coastal community, a managed retreat should be the last thing to do and there were many tools to be used and stages before that.
He added: ”Without wanting to be flippant, there will always be coastal communities – they might just be further inland than they are now.”
More from The Bellman on flooding in coastal towns
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