Better Water, Environment and Development for East Renfrewshire

Scottish Water today revealed that its Vision 2010 for East Renfrewshire - to provide more reliable supplies of clearer, fresher drinking water, improve the environment and enable development – will see the area benefit to the tune of more than £15m over the next two years.

Scottish Water has identified more than £2.5m to be invested on improving drinking water quality and more than £2m on improving the environment.

A key part of the investment will be the upgrading of a number of water treatment works to improve the quality of drinking water and the security of supply to almost 100,000 people in various parts of the area including Newton Mearns, Eaglesham, Neilston and Uplawmoor.

A number of sewers will also be upgraded to better protect the environment and local rivers. Investment in our sewer system will provide further environmental improvements to the White Cart and its tributaries by  improving the quality of effluent which is discharged into them.

Jim Hassan, Scottish Water’s regional manager for East Renfrewshire, said: “Our 2010 Vision for East Renfrewshire shows just how important the area is to us.Thousands of Scottish Water customers throughout the area will benefit hugely from this investment.

“Upgrading the Picketlaw and South Moorhouse Water Treatment Works is part of our commitment to provide clear, fresh high quality drinking water to our customers. In other cases we will be carrying out work that will result in cleaner rivers and will help protect the natural environment on your doorstep.

“In the meantime, our operations staff in East Renfrewshire continue to provide a superb 24/7 service and all this while our average household charge remains less than £1 per day.

“Our charges increase, at just over three per cent, for this year, is lower than many of the other water companies while we are delivering one the biggest investment programmes in the UK. Scottish Water’s customers are getting real value for money.”

Key water projects include:

• The £3.5m upgrade of the Picketlaw Water Treatment Works, the biggest project in East Renfrewshire in the two-year period, which will help deliver better quality drinking water to about 36,000 customers in the Eaglesham and Newton Mearns areas. The project, which is due to start late this summer and be completed next spring, will also improve the security of supply.
• A £2.5m upgrade of South Moorhouse Water Treatment works will provide better quality drinking water to about 20,000 people in parts of Newton Mearns. The improvement at South Moorhouse which, like the Picketlaw works is about 15 years old, will also provide improved security of supply. Work started in January and is expected to be completed soon.
• The new £120m Milngavie Water Treatment Works, which came on line in  September last year, is also supplying better quality drinking water to about 12,000 people in the Barrhead area.
• Customers throughout East Renfrewshire are also benefitting from better quality drinking water as a result of £60,000 worth of mains rehabilitation work in the Barrhead area and £115,000 of mains rehabilitation in the Waterside area, which was also completed in spring last year.

Key waste water projects include:

• Several sewer quality projects to improve the environment at watercourses in Newton Mearns and Merryburn .
• In Newton Mearns, we will improve the water quality in    the Auldhouse, Capelrigg and Broom burns by putting in five screens on Combined Sewer Overflows.Work. The project, which is due to start in the summer, will cost about £4m.
  
• In Giffnock and Newlands a £2.5m scheme to improve the environment around the Merry Burn over the next year began in January. The latest phase has just started.
• In addition, we plan to spend about £100,000 on a project due to start later this year to boost the performance of the Williamwood storm tanks which will improve the water quality of the White Cart.
• We also plan to complete a £150,000 sewer diversion in Cochrane Street, Barrhead, which will reduce the risk of flooding in the area.
• Some residents of East Renfrewshire, from Barrhead to Waterfoot and Uplawmoor to Busby, will benefit from the £7.1m upgrade of the Shieldhall Waste Water treatment works in Glasgow to improve waste water services to customers, which began in January and is due for completion in the summer of 2009.
• More than 70,000 people in East Renfrewshire will also benefit from two projects worth about £3.5m to improve services at the Kinning Park pumping station in Glasgow, which are due to be completed by the end of this year.

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