Dell of Spey becomes ‘Smell of Spey’ at Aviemore during heatwave
A much loved beauty spot at the heart of Aviemore became a ‘disgusting mess of grey sludge’ during the latest heatwave and emergency work is being carried out to sort the embarrassing problem.
Aviemore & Spey Valley Community Issues Forum has carried several complaints about the state of the Dell of Spey, where the Butcher’s Burn has fallen prey to pollution.
“Who do I need to contact to sort this out?” pleaded one contributor to the forum at the weekend.
Several agreed that “the grey sludge goes all the way down the burn to the Spey, disgusting.”
A spokesperson for SEPA, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency provided an update on events, confirming: “SEPA were made aware of this issue on Wednesday, July 9th and reported it to Scottish Water to investigate and check their sewage network.
“Scottish Water found a choke in one of the sewage chambers which had been created by fats, oils and greases.
“Scottish Water have been in attendance multiple times last week and over the weekend to clear the choke. When I spoke with Scottish Water this morning (yesterday) they confirmed there was a clean up operation in progress and they would continue to provide updates.
“Scottish Water are investigating to try and identify the location of where the fats, oils and grease had been put into the sewage network.”
The water feature behind the main car park opposite Tesco has often in the past had its problems because of the condition of the waters passing through the shady nook.
In June 2023 it was fully restored after major problems. The attractive feature had not been operational since 2019 and had fallen into disrepair.
The Dell of Spey was built in 1997 and water is pumped through its ornamental area from a natural feed, the Butcher’s Burn.
It was originally constructed in conjunction with the Aviemore Partnership and was part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the Highlands and Islands Objective One Partnership Programme, together with the Highland Council and Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise.
The restoration work was funded through the Council’s revenue budget.
Two years ago, given its prominence and its popularity with locals and visitors, members agreed that investment and restoration would provide a much-needed boost to the overall aesthetic in the centre of Aviemore.
Pictures of its problems over the weekend’s record heatwave were carried on the forum’s Facebook page.
