Final phase for river project

River Almond improvements near completion

THE FINAL PHASE of a project aimed at improving fish migration along the River Almond is set to get underway, after plans for changes to a historic Edinburgh weir were approved.

Councillors on the culture and communities committee were told that without investment in Dowies Mill Weir in Cramond, a “great majority” of the river will remain “largely inaccessible to migratory fish”.

Fish migrating through the Almond are said have been obstructed by seven local authority weirs in “very poor condition” in recent years, with Dowie’s Mill set to be the last to undergo alterations as part of the Almond Barriers Project.

Councillors were told: “If this weir were to fail, this could potentially put the upstream riverbanks, gas main, sewer, and Cramond Brig at serious risk of erosion and damage. The weir is in a noticeably poor state of repair and would appear likely to further degrade in the future. This is likely to alter passability for fish in unpredictable ways and be a risk to the long-term success of future improvement works unless action is taken.”

Officers found that completely removing the barrier, which dates back to the 1600s and sits 180m downstream from the A-listed Cramond Brig, would be the best option to aid fish migration. However, the solution was opposed by the local community, and proposals were drawn up to create a ‘rock ramp’ instead.

In order to “enhance the historic fabric,” a roughened slope will be constructed on the downstream side of the weir to create the rock ramp fishway. The estimated cost of the project is between £900,000 and £1.6 million. Cllr Hal

Osler raised the issue of maintenance costs for the new ramp, saying: “I’m a little nervous that there’s no understanding of how much maintenance costs would be for this, it could place quite a large burden on the city.”

Council environment officer Steven Cuthill said that in the medium term removal of sediment could be required, costing “probably a few thousands pounds to do on occasion”.

He added monitoring at other local weirs where changes to enhance fish migratory conditions have been completed found some debris including shopping trolleys had been collected.

“None of these have actually caused any blockage of the low flow channels and as a result hasn’t required maintenance, intervention, other than having to remove trolleys and such like,” Mr Cuthill said.

“We’ve got an ageing structure at the moment that will need quite substantial investment if it was to remain in its current format.”