Ayrshire 2010

Hundreds of thousands in Ayrshire to get clearer, fresher water

Hundreds of thousands of people will enjoy clearer, fresher drinking water as a result of Scottish Water’s 2010 Vision for Ayrshire – a programme of investment worth more than £100m over the next two years.

Our 2010 Vision for Ayrshire also includes a multi-million pound environmental scheme – one of the biggest of its kind ever undertaken in Scotland – in the Irvine and Kilmarnock areas.

What we're doing

The scheme will help protect and improve the quality of bathing waters and the natural environment of Irvine Bay, the River Irvine and burns and watercourses in the Kilmarnock area.

Amount invested

The investment in Ayrshire is part of a £2.4bn programme for Scotland – the second biggest investment programme in the UK and the biggest so far in Scotland.

The investment includes major projects at eight water treatment works.

Water projects include:

Three different projects worth a total of £11m at Bradan WTW near Straiton in South Ayrshire. Bradan is by far the biggest WTW in Ayrshire and serves 185,000 Scottish Water customers in most of South Ayrshire and parts of North and East Ayrshire including Ayr, parts of Kilmarnock, Irvine, Prestwick, Troon, Turnberry, Dalrymple, Maybole, Dalmellington, Tarbolton, Dreghorn, Darvel, and Newmilns. This work is already under way and is due for completion in early 2009.
a £6.8m upgrade at Corsehouse WTW near Stewarton, East Ayrshire to improve drinking water quality for 9100 people in the Stewarton, Dunlop, Lugton and Fenwick areas. This work is under way and is expected to be completed in 2009.
a £4.5m upgrade at Afton WTW near New Cumnock, East Ayrshire to improve drinking water for 40,000 people in the New Cumnock, Auchinleck, Cumnock, Mauchline, Hurlford, Patna, Dalmellington and Drongan areas. The upgrade is expected to finish in September 2009.
Three projects worth a total of £14m at Camphill WTW and the network supply zone to improve drinking water quality for 40,000 people in the Dalry, Kilbirnie, Beith, Ardrossan, West Kilbride, and Saltcoats areas.
A £440,000 project at Ashgrove WTW in North Ayrshire to improve drinking water quality for 31,500 people in the Kilwinning, Stevenston, Saltcoats, and Ardeer areas. This work is ongoing and is expected to finish in the spring of 2009.
This summer we will start an upgrade of the Penwhapple New WTW near Girvan, South Ayrshire, to improve drinking water quality for 8860 people in the Girvan, Barr, Pinwherry, Old Dailly, Lendalfoot, Barrhill, Colmonell and surrounding rural areas. The upgrade is expected to cost £4m and be completed in the summer of 2009.
Other important water projects include two at Lochranza and Balmichael WTWs on Arran which will bring better quality drinking water to more than 4000 people on the island, most of the population, including residents in Brodick, Lamlash, Blackwaterfoot, Lochranza and Whiting Bay. The Lochranza project is expected to finish this Autumn and the Balmichael project has been completed. The combined cost of the projects will be about £400,000.
Scottish Water is also working on maintaining the water mains infrastructure on the Ayr to Knockjarder trunk mains at a cost of about £3m, with the second phase of work due to finish in Spring 2009, on the water mains in the Knockjarder-Doonfoot-Longhill Ave area, which is will finish in autumn 2009, and on the water mains in the Knockjarder-Whitletts, Walker Rd/Whitletts Rd area.

Waste water projects include:

The construction of two new pumping stations, rising mains and a new wastewater treatment facility at Dunure Sewage Treatment facilities which serves about 500 Scottish Water customers in South Ayrshire. The £2.7m project, due for completion this summer, will improve the environment by providing better treatment of sewage which will be discharged further out to sea via a longer outfall.
We have just started a £350,000 upgrade of pipes near the Dalmellington WWTW which will bring environmental improvements to the area and make the works more efficient. A £1.3m project at works, which serves about 6000 customers, has been completed and has improved the environment in the Cumnock Water and River Doon by improving the treatment performance of the works in line with SEPA consent.
Scottish Water has completed a £2.1m sewer rehabilitation project at the Powburn Sewerage Pumping Station in East Ayrshire, which serves more than 14,000 people in the Prestwick, Auchincruive, St Quivox, Tarbolton and Mossblown areas
We have also completed the refurbishment of Barmill WWTW at a cost of £481,000 and this will allow for growth in line with the North Ayrshire local plan.
In addition, we have also improved the environment in the Kilmarnock area with projects to address Unsatisfactory Intermittent Discharges at Glasgow Road, Holehouse Road, Bruce Street, New Mill Road, Grassyards Road. A total of the seven UID projects in the area with a combined cost of about £2m have helped clean up the River Irvine and other water bodies and led to an improvement in bathing water quality in the Troon area.

Protecting your natural environment

Scottish Water revealed in mid-April 2008 that we are to embark on a multi-million pound scheme to help protect coastal areas and rivers in parts of North, East and South Ayrshire, which will provide significant environmental benefits and help us meet stringent EC directives and bathing water standards.

The areas which will benefit from the investment will include Irvine, Kilmarnock, Saltcoats, Troon, Barassie and Hurlford.

We expect to start the scheme early next year and will provide more details once our plans have been finalised.

Growing, thriving communities

Scottish Water is also committed to enabling the economic development of Ayrshire and to the progressive relief of development constraints to meet the needs of developers as they arise.

We are speaking with North, East and South Ayrshire councils, and the Irvine Bay Regeneration Company about their development plans.