Development opponents warn historical artefacts being lost

OPPONENTS to one of Waterford city’s regeneration projects fear that valuable artefacts may be destroyed by developers’ digging.

A wide trench is being dug to divert a main sewer around by the medieval city walls and watchtower at Railway Square. Waterford City Council has granted permission for the work, though the trench is in a zone of archaeological potential listed in the council's own development plan.

"The council will say that an archaeologist is standing by while digging is going on but this is not the same as a proper sensitive excavation," said Michael Brennan, who is opposed to the development..

"Historical medieval material, both solid and organic, may lie within this area, particularly where the trench approaches the city walls. The trench will be four metres deep and over two metres wide in order to take a 1.5 metre sewer pipe," said Mr Brennan who works at the School of Science in Waterford Institute of Technology.

"Going down four metres near a medieval city gets you into archaeologically sensitive layers, he said.

"Even the earth dug out should be sifted through for finds. Since a mechanical digger is no substitute for a trowel, this is not happening. The irony is that this destruction is being done merely to facilitate a property developer. The existing sewer is in the way of his proposed underground car-park," he said.

An Bord Pleanála has not yet given permission for either the car park or the rest of the development. It upheld objections to the project and ordered just last week that the developers go back to the drawing board and scale down the project.

A spokesman for Waterford City Council said that the work being done had nothing to do with the Railway Square development and added that when the site was acquired, one of the conditions was that the sewer be moved irrespective of any work being done on the site.

"That sewer had to be diverted in any case. The work is all being done under the supervision of an archaeologist.

"The planning application is still with the appeals board and this current work is a totally separate issue."

The developers say an archaeological impact assessment was prepared with the planning application.

This included documentary research, test trenching and historic building survey.

"The results of this work concluded that the majority of the site was devoid of significant archaeology . . . and was heavily disturbed during the construction of the railway and supporting infrastructure during the 19th century," said the developers in a statement.