Esk River Improvement Group Meeting Minutes of Meeting – 10am, Monday 20th May 2024, Microsoft Teams

Attendance: Colin Beattie MSP, Rob Munn (MSP Office), Scott Fraser (Scottish Water), Steven Boon (Scottish Water), Ann Stewart-Kmicha (Dalkeith & District Community Council), Barbara Mackie (Eskbank Newbattle Community Council) Pauline Crerar (Fisherrow Harbour & Seafront Association), Anne Hyatt (Roslin and Bilston Community Council), John Batty (Coal Authority), Peter Finnie (SEPA), Katrina Wilson (SEPA), Conor Price (Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme), Roddy Henry (Newbattle Abbey College), Fiona O’Mahony (NatureScot)

Apologies: Claire Tochel (Fisherrow Harbour & Seafront Association), Joy Godfrey (Eskbank Newbattle Shona Grant (East Lothian Council), Rachael Langfield (Coal Authority), Roger Croft (Esk Valley Trust), Rebecca Lewis (Riverfly on the Esk/Buglife), Rachael Elliott (NatureScot), Anne Hyatt (Roslin and Bilston Community Council), Philip Duncan (Musselburgh Racecourse) Rob Mitchell (SEPA)
 

Welcome
CB welcomed everyone to the meeting and the previous minutes were approved with some minor corrections.

1. Scottish Water – Scott Fraser/Steven Boon
SF updated on the actions from the last meeting

• Gladhouse reservoir rangers – Scottish Water are completing recruitment of two visitor engagement rangers. SW are funding these posts. There is a newsletter covering Gladhouse for anyone interested – I’ll share the details to join with the group.
• Dam releases there is dialogue with RL from Buglife to minimize impact on their surveys
• Installation of network monitors on the Esk – 19 monitors have been installed with plans for a further 16 monitors across the catchment some involve significant work including upgrading CSOs

 
2. East Lothian Council no update 
3. Midlothian Council no update 
4. Forth River Trust no update  

5. Coal Authority – John Batty
JB updated that there was now commercial board approval but still waiting for budget approval. CB offered to follow up as the project is of great importance.
Reported a delay in the demolition due to vandalism and arson on the site. A new structural report has been prepared for the demolition contractor and the demolition works should take place in the next month. ASK commented that the damage in the community was much wider than the Coal Authority site.
CB asked about the action from the last meeting regarding the ochre recycling and whether that is taken to Millerhill. JB the question has been asked but answer is not available will be followed up and reported back to a future meeting.
CB asked if residents’ communication had been shared with community councils ASK said they had not, and the last communication CCs had seen was sent at the beginning of the year JB to follow-up and ensure community councils are receiving regular updates.
 
6. SEPA – Katrina Wilson
KW gave an update on the rural team visits to farms. There have been 31 visits to farms in the Esk river catchment since last year and 25 were found to be fully compliant. There were 6 farms where there were compliance issues though these were minor and to do with storage of oil and liquid fertiliser. 4 farms had multiple compliance issues. All farms had been given updates and advised of the findings and all non-compliances would be revisited this year. The good news is that there was no pollution and proactive action will avoid pollution in the future.
CB updated the meeting that an invite had gone out to the public health team at NHS Lothian to address the risks to human health of the pollution levels in the Esk. No one is in attendance today so we will go back to them. He then opened for any questions.
ASK there has been no movement of the removal of the weirs at New Mills and Iron Mills and asked for an update.
KW The updates are not available on that, but an email went to RMu this morning about this. RMu said he’s had several ERIG emails this morning and would check after the meeting
PF confirmed Rob Mitchell (SEPA) said he’d provide an update at a future meeting.
 
7. Riverfly on the Esk/Buglife no report
PC reported as a volunteer that they have been unable to do much testing in the last few months because of the amount of rain meaning the river level was too high.
 
8. Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme – Conor Price
​CP presented a series of slides to update the meeting (to be made available as pdf after the meeting). The scheme has been notified as per the legislation on Thursday 21st March. The process is formal and is managed by ELC legal services and not the MFPS team. The period for comment ran from 21st March until 24th April. There were two parts 1) you could object to the scheme, and 2) you could make representation on the environmental impact assessment. The legal team are now engaged in categorisation of the of all the correspondence to make sure it is all recorded and fully considered. CP verbally thanked all who have contributed comment including members of this group. On the ‘Active Toun’ active travel measure which sit within the footprint of the MFPS the Council took the decision that these could not be considered as part of the flood scheme and will be dealt with separately and the Council will decide how that is dealt with over the summer.
Additional erosion assessment will be carried out via Dynamic Coast.
Countryside Services held an invasive non-native species steering group meeting in February and work is ongoing for treatment of invasive species largely by volunteers using digital resources to map where it is and for others to carry out the treatment, the aim is to achieve no single plant flowering this summer. There is work being carried out today to deal with Himalayan Balsam. There will be a programme of activities which I can share for circulation.
Parallel to this is the Musselburgh River Restoration project as parts of which are intended to be delivered by the proposed scheme. ELC have engaged Forth Rivers Consulting to undertake river habitat surveys and weir river surveys. These will help determine the options for river restoration to move that process forward. There has been some confusion on the terms of the Habitat Regulations Assessment (HRA) and what is required under the scheme it is not need ed for the notification of the scheme.
There are extra summer bird surveys in the seawall location because a gap has been identified in current surveys which impacted the comprehensiveness and integrity of the HRA there.
CP then updated on the formal notification on the MFPS. There were 11,000 letters to organisations and individuals plus notices in relevant areas and notices in newspapers all in March. The documents were made available at three physical venues. They remain available online and remain available at the three venues if anyone wishes to view them but are now boxed rather than on display. There was not a huge number of people turning up at the venues to view them, there was a much larger trend online.
There are objections and representations as outlined before these can be complex some are short and clear some 30-40 pages long some and some cover both.
Reiterated that this is a legal process and will take time. Aware that there is a desire for responses to the submissions, but it is not possible to respond individually to points raised. Will be producing a new issue of the newsletter to keep people informed should be emailed out in the next three weeks with physical copies being sent to every address in the EH21 postcode. Opened for questions. CB shared that he had raised the funding of the scheme with the Scottish Government and that he’d been due to meet with the Cabinet Secretary on the 21st of March, but the meeting had been cancelled as a result of the start of the statutory process which landed on the same day. He would continue to seek answers on the funding. CP explained that to qualify for funding any flood protection schemes had to be notified to the SG by 31st March and his understanding is that 3-4 schemes were notified by that date. Other schemes that did not meet that deadline would not now be part of cycle 1 of flood protection schemes taken forward which should relieve funding pressure. CB reiterated that he would continue to try and find out more regarding the scheme funding. ASK raised the scheme plans were still on display at Dalkeith Library and not boxed. CP thanked her and said he would follow up after the meeting and said the library should now be displaying a poster informing users that the documents remain in the library for public inspection.
 
8. AOB    
Meeting ends at 10:55
 
Summary of Actions
 
Scottish Water
 

• SF to send over the link to the Gladhouse newsletter

 
Coal Authority

• Provide an update on ministerial approval
• Ochre recycling destination
• Ensure Community Councils receive the residents’ communications

 
SEPA

• Update on the weirs/fish barriers

 
Musselburgh Flood Protection scheme

• CP to share the slides from the meeting
• CB to follow up on the funding of the scheme with the Scottish Government