Casting vote decides Whitesands flood scheme car parking plan

No development funding has been allocated for the wider flood protection plans for the next 10 years

Part of a multi-million pound flood protection scheme for Dumfries can be brought forward - despite doubts about the fate of the overall scheme.

The chairman of the council's planning committee used his casting vote to approve the car parking proposal.

It will allow new spaces to be created in the Greensands area ahead of work on the wider Whitesands project.

Dumfries and Galloway Council agreed a budget earlier this year with no development funding for the plans.

The flood protection project - priced at £25m in 2016 - was given planning permission by the Scottish government shortly before the Covid pandemic which delayed its implementation.

A change of political leadership on the local authority saw the Conservative budget drop any funding for its development over the next 10 years at least.

Compensatory car parking is part of the plans to help protect the area from flooding

It prompted campaigners to suggest the project - as it currently stands - was "dead in the water".

However, the council's planning committee was asked to consider allowing compensatory car parking, proposed in the Greensands area, to start ahead of the wider scheme.

Opponents argued that there were already sufficient spaces in the town and voiced concern about the environmental impact of that plan.

Councillors were split over whether to allow that element of the flood scheme to be potentially brought forward and a vote was split with eight votes for and eight against with one abstention.

It meant chairman Jim Dempster had to use his casting vote and he gave approval for the parking proposals to be carried out ahead of the rest of the protection work.