The City of Edinburgh Council has been commended in an independent inquiry for their response to the failure of the pumping equipment at Seafield Waste Water Treatment Plant on April 20 2007.

As a result of the failure of the pumping station at the Marine Esplanade and calls for a full public inquiry, the Chief Executives of both Scottish Water and The City of Edinburgh Council agreed to the commissioning of Mr R.J Baty OBEC.Eng to undertake a full review of the incident.

His report made a number of specific recommendations including the setting up of a National Working Group to establish the appropriate roles and responsibilities for all agencies and local authorities in the event of a future waste water treatment incident.

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The report into the incident commends the City of Edinburgh Council for its positive and constructive management of the incident. A report to be considered by the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee praises the actions of council staff who responded out of hours and across departments to provide reassurance and undertake community engagement.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, Environment Convener said: "I would like to thank all the staff who reacted to this incident when it occurred and went out of their way to make themselves available to assist, regardless of it being out of hours.

"I am encouraged that a national working group is being set up and will look forward to hearing what progress is being made on contingency planning for any similar occurrence in the future."

(GK/NS)