Scottish Water is to commence investigative work in the White Cart Water in Paisley.

The project is being carried out ahead of an investment that will improve the natural environment of the river.

The work will involve the use of a rig which will drill boreholes at five locations on the White Cart between Abbey Bridge and St James' Bridge in Paisley town centre.

The rig will sit on top of a floating plastic pontoon that will be anchored to the river wall. A 100 millimetre diameter tube will then be used to extract samples of soil and rock. This will be analysed to establish ground conditions along the route of a new waste water pipeline being installed at a later date.

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The investigative work, which is expected to take around six weeks to complete, will be carried out for Scottish Water by contractors Raeburn Drilling.

Mark Maclaren, Scottish Water's Regional Community Manager, said: "The work involving the drilling rig will be visible in the centre of Paisley but will be carried out in areas where the public don't use the riverbank so it should not cause any significant inconvenience.

"This work will be carried in three phases during and local people may experience some minor intermittent noise when we start the drilling.

"We will also be placing scaffolding, (approx height 3-4m), on the pavement to allow our contractor to access the pontoons. During this time we will maintain pedestrian and vehicle access on Forbes Place and Causeyside Street, however we will use some of the parking bays for contractor parking and a welfare unit."

(JP/MH)