ALTERATIONS to a tributary of the River Tweed will be retained after council officers granted retrospective planning permission.

The works, completed in September, included the restoration of an “artificially straightened” section of the Eddleston Water, according to papers submitted to the local authority.

The creation of an active travel path between Peebles and Eddleston – which the council announced last year had secured £2 million of funding – relies on the “crucial” changes, according to a supporting letter.

In that document, Russ Jobson, project manager at Tweed Forum, said: “The works complete on site are to restore an artificially straightened part of the Eddleston Water, which is a tributary of the river Tweed at Peebles and the installation of a flood attenuation pond.

“The works undertaken will create a more natural meandering river channel totalling 468m (an increase of 93m against that of the existing historically straightened channel) within a 2.4ha floodplain.

“This will improve the river condition for morphology, add length to the river, add in-channel habitat and increase biodiversity. It may also aid with flood water storage, as the river will be reconnected to the floodplain in this area.”

He added: “The second phase of operations is to create a flood attenuation pond to aid with the overall natural flood management operations already undertaken within the Eddleston catchment. The pond will be designed to allow inundation in highwater conditions with a slow release as water levels fall back.

“These works are part of the larger Eddleston Water Project that has been in operation since 2009 and is a SEPA and Scottish Government-led catchment wide initiative to try to gauge the effects of natural flood management measures.

“The works will complement a wider series of habitat and ecological restoration activities, already carried out.”

The project was not thought to require planning permission and was started on August 16, finishing a month and a half later.

Mr Jobson said: “The works described in this application and supporting documents are crucial to allow the installation of the Sustrans multi-use path.

“As such, as part of our operations, the old channel has been backfilled with the excavated material from the new channel to form a surface to the multi-use path to be installed. “

The path – anticipated to be completed in spring this year – will be for walkers, cyclists, wheelers and horse riders.

It forms part of a campaign aiming to encourage more active travel in the region.