Preserve views

I have been studying the nontechnical summary of the environmental impact assessment report which is available at the Brunton Hall for us to make our final representations to the Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme.

I have been trying to envisage what the riverside between the Roman Bridge and on the Mall Avenue side will actually look like under these proposals. I have tried to study the detail of what the changes that we, as citizens, have demanded in order to preserve the Mall trees.

What this redesign by the project team actually means is that the flood wall will slice across the middle of our iconic views of the Roman and Rennie Bridges. The riverbank will be divided down the middle.

If the illustrations of this are carefully studied, you can just make out that the flood wall abuts into the first arch of the B-listed Rennie Bridge and cuts off the relieving arch, which was designed in the 19th century to allow excess flood water to escape under the bridge.

How the flood wall collides with the Category A-listed Roman Bridge is obscure.

It seems to me that our love of trees has taken precedence over keeping the treasured traditional view of this stretch of the riverbank. Also, it narrows the riverbank and will restrict the flood capacity of the river in this position.

I deeply oppose this change. I love trees. I have forest trees in my garden. But the life of the Mall trees is limited.

These are large, mature trees, and their loss would be a cause of great sadness.

But they could be replaced by a fine avenue of semimature trees (selected and grown during the years of construction leading to the completion of the scheme).

Our present, treasured view can never be restored or retained once the flood wall is built across the middle of it. This current design is an appalling compromise and I would support the idea that the original proposal to site the flood wall along the pavement of the Mall should be reconsidered.

I have walked along the route of the proposed flood walls, following the illustrations in the project update pamphlet.

In places, the riverbank has been narrowed by the positioning of the walls, thus restricting the capacity of the banks to absorb the rising waters.

I weep for the loss of more trees but do not support this clumsy design which has been produced to circumnavigate the Mall trees. To me, preserving our fine iconic riverside views takes precedence.

Frances Stevens Musselburgh