No oral hearing for contentious €6m Morrison’s Island flood plan in Cork

There will be no oral hearing into the contentious €6m Morrison’s Island flood defence scheme in Cork city.

An Bórd Pleanála has confirmed that it has chosen not to hold a public oral hearing into the public realm upgrade, which features inbuilt flood defences, and that a final planning decision date in late December is still on target.

The decision should bring forward by several months the already-delayed start date on a scheme which was stalled last year by a successful legal challenge.

The scheme has been designed to remove an estimated 80% of the flood threat to city-centre businesses.

The work was split from the OPW’s €140m Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme (LLFRS) to be advanced separately by Cork City Council under the Part 8 planning process.

Councillors voted in May 2018 to give it planning but following a legal challenge by Save Cork City, the main critics of the LLFRS, the council had to submit a new planning application to the Bórd.

The scheme includes flood protection measures along a 550m stretch from Parliament Bridge to Parnell Bridge, to include new plazas.

Car-parking spaces on Morrison’s Quay and Fr Mathew Quay will be reduced from 148 to 33 – a loss of 115 parking spaces.