Campaign group applies to challenge Blackpool flood relief scheme

The flood relief scheme would culvert a 350m stretch of the River Bride to lesson flooding risks in Blackpool village, aiming to protect up to 290 residential and commercial properties.

A campaign group has applied to the High Court to challenge government plans for a flood relief scheme in Cork City which they say will destroy a river and the habitat it provides to otters.

Government has approved a €20.5m flood relief scheme for the River Bride in Blackpool. But that decision may now be challenged by a judicial review, which has been sought by the Save Our Bride Otters campaign group.

The flood relief scheme would culvert a 350m stretch of the River Bride to lesson flooding risks in Blackpool village, aiming to protect up to 290 residential and commercial properties.

The area suffered major flooding in 2012 following torrential rain prompting authorities to develop a flood relief scheme for the area. However, Save Our Bride Otters says the plans to cover over the river will permanently destroy the habitat for fish, birds, bats and otters while severing the community’s connection to its industrial history.

It says flood water could be stored upstream in the catchment, as has been implemented by the Office of Public Works (OPW) in Clonakilty.

This is cheaper by the OPW’s own estimates, is environmentally friendly, and would be enthusiastically welcomed by all in the Blackpool community, the group said. 

"Instead, the OPW have decided to spend in excess of a decade fostering division with a proposal that we feel has been set up to fail in the planning, or consenting, process, thereby denying the residents and businesses of Blackpool the flood relief we need and deserve."

The current plan is also incompatible with European environmental directives that have been transposed into Irish law, the group says.

“Save Our Bride Otters have applied to the High Court for leave to take a judicial review against what we consider to be an entirely unnecessary destruction of the River Bride in Blackpool by a flood relief option being stubbornly advanced by the OPW,” Save Our Bride Otters said in a statement.

"In the OPW’s experts’ own words, the currently preferred option for flood relief will result in 'significant, negative and permanent impacts' on fish, birds, bats and otters. The OPW have spent 12 years advancing the covering over, and entombing, of the River Bride in Blackpool Village, thereby burying Blackpool’s living link to its industrial past and the green and blue artery connected to the heart of our community."