County manager vows to do ‘all in his power’ to prevent Bandon floods
Mr Riordan made his comments after a report delivered to councillors showed that no dredging of town’s river is planned before the summer of 2014.
Bandon-based councillor Veronica Neville (FG), whose own solicitor’s practice was flooded in 2009 along with many other businesses and households, said people were very concerned that no work on dredging the river was planned this year.
She added that delays in the Bandon Sewerage Scheme, caused when the contractor SIAC pulled out of the project, only added to the concern of locals who she said were “suffering constant mental stress” every time there was a downpour.
It was hoped ideally that the sewerage scheme would run in tandem with the town’s flood relief scheme. The latter will take several years to complete.
The council is to retender the sewerage scheme shortly, in the hope that a new contractor will start working on the project by next summer.
However, this could be held up if further archaeological investigations along the proposed pipeline routes reveal any significant finds.
Ms Neville said there had to be a commitment from Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) to allow dredging of the river if it needed to be done this year.
Normally IFI only allows dredging works between May 1 and Sept 30, outside the fish spawning season.
Cllr Alan Coleman (FF) said that in recent years when the council had received permission to clean the river from IFI, these works had undoubtedly contributed to preventing flooding.
Cllr Donal O’Rourke (FF) said he was concerned about the slow progress of some flood prevention works in the county and said the humans should get preference over spawning fish.
The county manager said the council “will do everything we can to protect them (the people of Bandon) from floods”.
“We haven’t let the people of Bandon down yet and we don’t intend to.”
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