The cost of rebuilding a harbour wall has soared to more than £560,000 – meaning repairs in other coastal communities across the region have been scaled back.
Emergency work was commissioned in Cullen at the beginning of the year after part of the historic sea defences crashed into the water.
Now it has been revealed that the total cost to restore the harbour wall was £561,000 – almost double the original estimate of £300,000.
Today councillors are due to approve diverting cash from the harbour repairs budget – which has a backlog of more than £6million – to pay the bill.
Some of the cash would have been put towards work at Buckie, Burghead and Findochty.
Last night John Cowe, chairman of the council’s economic development committee, admitted it was “unfortunate” other ports would miss out on vital maintenance.
However, the Heldon and Laich member warned the consequences could have been much worse if money was not spent at Cullen.
He said: “If we had done nothing then there was a risk the entire wall might have broken away, which would have meant the whole harbour would have to be shut.
“It’s unfortunate that other harbours aren’t going to get the spend but it is going to be covered by our harbour capital repairs budget – it could be argued that’s where the money for work like this should come from.
“That’s now two harbour walls we’ve had damaged in the last four years after Lossiemouth. Reserve funds to cover them only last so long, particularly in our present circumstances.”
Council engineers have said the main increase in costs at Cullen was due to extra rock armour being needed to repair and protect a defensive wall. Stone from the original structure was salvaged as part of the repair job.
Fears about the safety of the battered harbour wall, which was built in 1817, were originally raised in April last year before the collapse in December, with some locals believing the emergency could have been prevented.
But last night, Dennis Paterson, a member of Cullen Community Council, insisted he was just relieved the wall had been repaired without the need for the port to close.
He said: “From our point of view we are just glad the work was done so quickly. I was down there just the other day and the person who was with me didn’t even realise there had been a big hole there.
“We reported our concerns in April but we don’t want to apportion blame about what happened after that. It’s all done now and the important thing is that it has been repaired.”
Today, councillors will also be asked to approve £1.1million worth of repairs over the next year at Buckie to fix concrete and undermining worries, at Burghead to replace rock armour and missing blocks and concrete repairs and a diving survey at Findochty. The authority also runs ports at Hopeman and Portknockie.
The spending is about £261,000 less than was originally expected, due to the Cullen works.