WORK on Selkirk's £31 million flood defence scheme was completed last week.

And engineers are confident the town is safe from whatever the elements wants to throw at it.

Following 23 months of digging, building, replacing and planting the final section of the defences was slid into place at Shaw Burn last Wednesday.

Project engineer Andrew Dinnett said: "All of the flood defence infrastructure is now complete.

"If we get a one-in-200 year flooding event we are protected."

Following major flooding in 2003 and 2004, which led to mass evacuations and widespread damage to properties in and around the Bannerfield area, Selkirk was earmarked for protection.

An agreed scheme won support from both Scottish Borders Council and the Scottish Government.

And in June, 2014, MSP Paul Wheelhouse officially started the construction stage of the defences.

As well as re-routing burns, creating an Intelligent Water Management System at St Mary's Loch, building embankments and walls, engineers have also replaced a busy footbridge and expanded culverts to secure the town from future deluges.

Project manager Connor Price commented: "There was a huge sense of satisfaction watching the last piece of flood wall complete te tapestry of protective systems within this major civil engineering project.

"It is now over seven years since the project team commenced the design, and having travelled through the whole journey with our designers from CH2M, the people of Selkirk, and more recently the construction team from RJ Mcleod, it is my pleasure on behalf of the team to confirm that Selkirk is now protected."

Contractors will remain on site until December for small engineering jobs.

And remedial works on roads, which includes resurfacing, patching and line painting, will begin on the Yarrow Road, the carriageway near the Recycling Centre, Whinfield Road, and the A699 Selkirk-St Boswells road, where clay extraction took place.

Inspections will also continue for the next few months.

Mr Dinnett added: "We are going to walk over each section with landowners to make sure their land has been returned to how it was or improved."

RJ McLeod will remain responsible for maintenance of the scheme for the next three years.

A grand opening of the Selkirk Flood Protection Scheme will take place in February with an MSP, believed to be Roseanna Cunningham, to cut the ribbon.