Clon landowners to be consulted on €15m flood plan

Consultants will be appointed shortly to negotiate with a number of landowners in West Cork as part of a proposed €15m flood relief scheme for Clonakilty.

“The consultants will negotiate with affected landowners to get agreement to use their lands for holding back water in the event of a flood,” said local Fine Gael TD Jim Daly, who added that the consultants should be appointed in the coming weeks.

The Office of Public Works, he said, has already put the plan to locals to identify lands to facilitate floodwater storage. Some landowners had concerns about the potential impact on their properties.

“The consultants have been recruited to further negotiations with the landowners and address their concerns,” Mr Daly said. Five or six landowners were expected to be involved in these discussions, he added.

Mr Daly said he could understand people’s frustration with the length of time it was taking but emphasised the project was in hand.

He said it was important that drainage works in Clonakilty, to be carried out by Cork County Council, take place in advance of the larger project of flood defences being put in place by the OPW outside the town.

“I would like to see these works by Cork County Council begin straightaway,” he added.

Last July, flood maps and a scheme which recommended flood-water storage in an artificial, embanked online storage area upstream of Clonakilty to reduce fluvial flood risk, and on-land flood defences to reduce coastal flood risk, were brought to public consultation.

To develop and implement the flood relief scheme for Clonakilty, Mr Daly explained, the OPW planned to commission consultants to undertake a contract to develop and assist with the implementation of a five-part scheme from design and public exhibition stages to tendering for construction, construction supervision, and handover of works.

“Tenders have been received for the contract,” he said, adding that it is expected that consultants will be appointed at the end of this month or early next month.

A draft report will be submitted by the summer, while a public consultation day is to be held in the following months.

The design of the project was scheduled for completion in late spring or early summer of 2015, with tenders issued for construction shortly afterwards.