OPPONENTS of the controversial Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme (MFPS) are being offered talks with East Lothian Council to explore withdrawing their objections to the plans.

The local authority is in the process of writing to people to acknowledge formal objections to the scheme, a council spokesperson said.

They explained: “This includes an offer to meet.

“The purpose of the meeting is for the benefit of the objector to allow them to seek clarification on the points they raised, as well as to discuss objections to explore whether they would be willing to withdraw their objections.”

They added: “The next step after this will be for elected members to consider all valid objections and then make a preliminary decision on the proposed scheme.”

The Musselburgh project aims to protect the town from flooding from the coast and the River Esk, which runs through its centre.

READ MORE: First look at how proposed Musselburgh flood defences could look

The council has explained that the scheme would “provide formal flood protection to around 3,000 properties in the town at risk from a major flood event”.

But the design sparked controversy in the town after costs soared from the original £8.9 million stated in 2016 to a current estimate of £53.9 million.

Objectors to the scheme have raised concerns about what they describe as a “hard-engineering” design plan rather than one with more nature-based solutions.

A petition calling for the project to be paused was considered by councillors alongside a report in January.

At that meeting, the council approved the outline design and agreed to move forward to the formal consultation process.

Current plans include 4.7km

of flood walls, with 1.7km made

up of “flood embankments and

hybrid structures”.

Other projects being brought together for a joint delivery by the council under the umbrella of the flood protection scheme are: repair works to the existing ash lagoons seawall; and the parts of the proposed Musselburgh Active Travel footpath network that sit on the footprint of the scheme.

Together, these constitute a combined investment of £132.5 million “to renew and enhance the historic, built environment in Musselburgh”.

The original flood protection scheme now constitutes £53 million of this investment, with the Scottish Government contributing 80 per cent of the cost of the scheme.

New design proposals for the scheme show that much of the flood walls proposed for areas around the River Esk have been reduced in height to one metre, to address concerns over their impact.