IT will be one of the most expensive and extensive capital projects ever undertaken in the Borders - a £31.4 million programme of work to protect 450 homes and 150 businesses in Selkirk and the Yarrow valley from flooding.

Within the next few weeks, Scottish Borders Council is set to invite tenders for the various procurement contracts involved in a scheme which will control the level of the Ettrick Water as it flows through the town and regulate its fast-running tributaries – the Yarrow Water and the notorious Long Philip Burn.

Major defences will be constructed along the Riverside commercial area where an estimated 1,500 people are employed.

The multi-faceted project will, it is claimed, reduce the risk of flooding to a one-in-500 year event.

The actual physical work is scheduled to start at the end of this year and take two years to complete.

The procurement and construction phases were given the go-ahead by the council last week when it was agreed to delegate the final delivery of the project, without further input from elected members, to director of environment and infrastructure Rob Dickson.

But councillors were told the scheme can only progress if the Scottish Government, which has set aside £42 million a year for flood protection schemes, agrees to underwrite 80 per cent (around £25 million) of the recently revised total capital costs (£31.4 million) of the Selkirk project.

An application in those terms was formally submitted in January and a decision was due to be announced at the end of February to allow the procurement process to commence on April 1.

But when the council met on Thursday, that decision from Holyrood was still awaited and, at the time of going to press yesterday (Tuesday), no announcement had been made.

The Border Telegraph attempted without success to find out if and when the funding green light would be given.

A Scottish Government spokesperson responded: “We have received a number of applications for funding for new flood protection schemes.

“A joint COSLA [Convention of Scottish Local Authorities]/Scottish Government panel has met to consider these applications and will make recommendations to the COSLA leadership and Scottish ministers.

“This will enable the COSLA leadership and Scottish ministers to determine the distribution of the £42 million per annum of Scottish Government funding allocated for flood protection within the general capital grant to local authorities.” A report to council by project manager Conor Price revealed SBC had already spent £1.9 million progressing the scheme – launched in 2009 - to its current stage.

And he cautioned that the 80 per cent Scottish Government contribution would only apply to the £31.4 million costing which, itself, was £2.4 million higher than a 2013 estimate. If total costs escalated further, any excess would have to be met by the council.

Although the most famous flood in Selkirk occurred in 1977, when the stane brig over the Ettrick was spectacularly washed away, it was the devastating events of May, 2003 and August 2004, when severe flash flooding inundated hundreds of homes in Bannerfield, that pushed the town up the pecking order for a major protection scheme.