THE leader of East Lothian Council has appealed to North Berwick residents for understanding as the council faces a six-figure bill to repair the town’s ancient harbour after stormy weather punched a hole in its sea wall last month.

Councillor Norman Hampshire was speaking after an update on the work needed to repair the damage caused along the East Lothian coastline by last month’s storms.

A senior executive told a meeting of the Labour administration’s cabinet that they would need to work with Scottish Government and environmental groups to find the funding and support for the work.

And he said a long-term strategy would be needed to look at the impact of climate change and future storm surges on the county’s coastline as a whole.

Stormy weather last month saw a huge surge of water pierce the harbour wall – which is 400 years old in places – leaving a five-metre wide gap in it.

READ MORE: Huge hole in harbour wall as stormy conditions hit town

Contractors are due to start assessing the repair options at the site tomorrow, with plans expected to involve rescuing as much of the original stone as possible to reuse in the restoration.

The update came as the council's cabinet met to approve plans to transfer the budget for a harbourmaster in the town to North Berwick Harbour Trust.

A virtual meeting of the group was told that the move would be a step towards the trust moving towards a full harbour empowerment order.

The council’s Eamonn John said that the report into the change was not connected to recent damage caused by the storms and was the result of discussion stretching back more than 15 years since the trust was established.

However, Mr Hampshire asked for an update on the work being undertaken at the harbour following damage to the sea wall after the storms struck last month.

READ MORE: 'Quick action' needed to secure harbour's future

Tom Reid, the council’s head of infrastructure, told the meeting that the wall had suffered "serious structural damage".

He said: “We can’t put an exact cost on it at the moment but we know it is going to be significant, we know it is going to be six figures.”

Mr Reid said: “The costs and the importance of this means it will have to be a multi-agency approach and we have brought in the Scottish Government, Marine Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland and the North Berwick Trust.”

However, he added that while the damage to the 400-year-old harbour wall was the largest piece of infrastructure affected, the storms had taken their toll along East Lothian’s coastline.

He said: “There has been significant damage along the coast – one of the sea walls and significant minor damage to coastal paths and staircases and entry points, as well as a hole has opened up at Cockenzie Harbour which is not as significant and more repairable, so there is a huge piece of work going on along the coast.”

Mr Reid said that he was due to attend a public meeting in North Berwick on the wall where he would be explaining the need for multi-agency involvement – that meeting took place yesterday evening.

Mr Hampshire said: “Hopefully the people of North Berwick will understand the implications of the damage that has been done and the work that is being done to try and get this repaired as quickly as possible.”