Your Town. Your Choice. Join us in asking East Lothian Council to pause the Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme
Want some background? Start here: Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme – introduction (7-minute read)
or with this article in The National: Musselburgh flood defence scheme could be scrapped after backlash
Prefer videos? Visit the Resources page or our YouTube channel
Latest update
As the controversial £103 million Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme moves towards a Public Local Inquiry (PLI) starting in October 2026, we have alarming news regarding the sheer scale of public money being used by East Lothian Council to defend their out-of-control project against those within our community who seek to pause it.
Despite the intention of the PLI Reporter (Mr Paul Cackette CBE) for the process to be as “informal and relaxed as possible” and to treat all parties equally, East Lothian Council has allocated an estimated £1 million of public money to defend the scheme. Instead of relying on their own highly paid legal officers and project managers, they have hired a King’s Counsel (KC) and a partner from a large corporate law firm to face down ordinary citizen objectors.
This inappropriate misuse of taxpayer funds perfectly highlights the massive imbalance of power, the council’s blatant disregard for public finances, and the urgent need to keep fighting this bloated, wall-heavy project full of unnecessary measures and instead take some time to monitor water levels over a longer-term and explore solutions upstream throughout the River Esk catchment area in Midlothian and the Pentland Hills.
Pause The Flood Scheme is a group of local residents who are concerned about the proposed flood protection plans and seek an alternative nature-based solution.
- We support an effective and robust flood protection scheme
- The proposed scheme destroys historic and natural environments along our river and coast
- It is the most objected-to flood scheme in Scotland, with 3000+ objectors
- The project was originally budgeted at £8.9m, but has ballooned to £103m
- To date, East Lothian Council have already spent over £4m on design and consultation fees
- It has been developed with no transparency, independent scrutiny or alternatives
- Out-of-control costs and questionable value for money
- Lack of meaningful community engagement and effective consultation process with the town
- We are campaigning for a better, more sustainable and more democratic process
Proposed cost: The cost of the scheme has ballooned to £103m in total, including £53.9m for the flood protection element. Note that it began in 2016 as an £8.9m scheme. Note also that there are no cost breakdowns in the public domain and that the Council has been told costs are likely to rise. How can the Council have voted this through with so little information? Why has no cap been put on the cost?
Ongoing costs: To date over £4m has already been paid out to the consultants and contractors, yet East Lothian Council is facing a funding gap of £80 million over 5 years, with decreasing spending on core Council services. Additionally, we are told the Brunton Hall needs to be demolished. If so, it should to replaced, and not sold to housing developers as land to pay off debt the council has got itself into.
Future costs: The Scottish Government and COSLA working group on flooding has recognised the model of uncapped funding (known as Cycle 1) allows project consultants and developers to expand flood schemes into much larger, and more costly projects. The escalating costs and scope of this project should be scrutinised and capped to prevent further inflation.
What is being proposed?
Please scroll sideways through the images below, which demonstrate what the Outline Design, as voted through by the council in January 2024, might look like.
Images illustrating what the proposed flood defences in Musselburgh will look like, with wall height figures based on those of the Outline Design, presented at the June 2023 Public Exhibition at Eskmills.
See the ‘Outline Design’ plans for yourself at the project website, as exhibited for two days in June 2023 at Eskmills.
Why pause the scheme?
We accept that a flood prevention scheme is necessary … but … the scheme that the council is proposing is unsightly, outdated, unfriendly to the environment and crucially, far exceeds the needs for our town.
This group aims to:
- Pause the flood scheme
- Explore nature-based solutions upstream in Midlothian
- Protect our town for future generations
We’ve worked with geoscience experts who have told us that there’s still time to explore other options.
This is an opportunity for Musselburgh to become a leading example of a town using nature-based solutions to protect its residents from future flooding.
What can I do?
Sign our petition
Get our voices heard
- We’re asking East Lothian Council to press pause on the scheme and work with geoscientists to explore other nature-based solutions.
Email your councillor
Give them your views
- The council appear keen to push the scheme through. Join us in asking them to release their research into nature-based solutions and give a democratic voice to Musselburgh residents.
Lend us your time
Help make a difference
- We’re always looking for volunteers to raise awareness in a positive, responsible way. If this sounds like you, we invite you to join our growing group of friendly volunteers.
Donate
Help fund our activity
- We’re all volunteers who live in Musselburgh. All donations will be used to produce our printed flyers and posters etc
Put a poster in your window – If we can show there’s appetite to pause the scheme, the council are more likely to reconsider. Download our poster to print out and display in your window to show your concern and spread the word.
Donate
We’re all volunteers who live in Musselburgh. All donations contribute to the cost of our printed flyers and posters etc. Donate via bank transfer using these account details:
Musselburgh Flood Protection Action Group
Bank of Scotland
Sort code: 802260
Account Number : 25704966
Contact us
Want some more background? Start here: Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme – introduction (7-minute read)