Scottish Water has announced that a multi-million pound investment project to help reduce the risk of sewer flooding in Pittenweem will get underway on Monday, 15 January.

The work involves the upgrading of new and improved wastewater infrastructure, including a new long sea outfall, Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) chambers and upgraded pipework.

The first phase of the project will start in the East Shore area of the village where the existing CSO will be upgraded with a new powered screen, which will reduce the risk of items such as wet wipes and sanitary products from ending up in the environment during times of heavy rain. Also, a new outfall will be installed which will take existing overflow from the inner harbour further out to sea. The phase of the project is expected to take around 5 months to complete.

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There will be parking restrictions and traffic management at East shore and The Gyles with 2-way temporary traffic lights during the work. Local access through to Mid-Shore/West Shore will be maintained.

Scott Fraser, Scottish Water's Corporate Affairs Manager, said: "This is an important investment for Pittenweem. The village has had a long history of sewer flooding so it is great to see this project start on site.

"We appreciate that there will be periods of disruption during the construction and we will try to minimise this where possible. This is a really challenging project as we are working in areas with tide movements, limited space for vehicle movements placing major constraints on our work.

"We ask people to be considerate and take extra care while we are carrying out this essential work."

Clive Duncan, Customer Communications Manager for Caledonian Water Alliance, the delivery partner for the project added: "We have been liaising with various community groups in the area for a number of years and hope to continue working with them to keep the community up to date with progress of the project which will ultimately bring benefits to the wider community."