Councillors have agreed to move forward with plans to secure the cliff face above the historic coastal community of Pennan.

The work to reduce the risk of future landslips on the coastal slope will be subject to a number of conditions, including the signature of an Exclusion of Liability by all property owners in the vicinity of the proposed works.

Aberdeenshire Council will also pursue contributions from the owners of the slope, either in monetary terms, or "in kind" to assist with the project’s implementation.

Council funds up to £100,000 have been freed up for the work, for use if necessary, in addition to a pledge of Scottish Government funding.

"Although the Council has no legal obligation to undertake this work, we recognise that the safety of householders is essential," said chairman of the Infrastructure Services Committee, Peter Argyle.

Further exploratory and design work will now have to be undertaken to obtain a more accurate estimate of total cost, and any additional expenditure beyond £100,000 will require separate approval by the council's Policy and Resources Committee.

-- Advertisement --

In the interest of best value to the council, geotechnical specialists Jacobs Ltd. could be appointed to undertake the development and implementation of the project.

They have prior knowledge and experience of the site, but will only be awarded the work subject to the submission of a competitive bid and approval by the Policy and Resources Committee.

A series of landslips occurred on the cliff face behind properties numbers 18 to 53 Shore Street at Pennan on Monday, August 6, 2007 following a period of exceptionally heavy rainfall.

This necessitated the evacuation of a number of houses due to mud entering the properties and concerns about the risk of further slips.

When weather conditions improved, a clean-up operation by Aberdeenshire Council began and Jacobs were brought in to assess the cliff face and give advice on measures to make the slope safe and allow residents to return.

Loose material was removed from the cliff face by the end of 2007 and the houses could be re-occupied, but substantially more expensive and costly work required to be done in the long term, to reduce the risk of further landslips.

The provisional additional stabilisation measures comprise three distinct elements of work: construction of a concrete-lined drainage cut-off channel at the top of the slope. Re-grading, pinning, meshing and hydro-seeding unstable or disturbed areas of the slope face and trimming, soil nailing and re-seeding small areas of embankment just above the access road to the village.

The efficacy of these measures has to be confirmed, through further site investigations, detailed surveys and design, before implementation can progress.

(GK/BMcC)