New drainage system at Cork city playground failed us miserably

Cork City Council opened a new play area just last year in Fitzgerald Park at a cost of €600,000. Remarkably however, following recent rains, the new play area was flooded, not once but twice, and access was denied for several weeks.

The flooding occurred as engineers decided to excavate an area in a known flood zone and to locate the playground a meter or so below ground and river level, thus inviting flooding. The playground would have remained open had it been constructed at ground level or above, as no other area in the park was flooded during this period.

One would have thought that the council would be embarrassed by such a faux pas but , Mr Jim O’Donovan, Director of Services for Environment and Recreation stated that ‘the design of the new playground allows for occasional flooding and the drainage system has the capacity to drain quickly when the river level drops’.

Clearly the drainage system didn’t work on this occasion as the council were forced to have a pump on standby at considerable expense.

Why therefore discard critical historical information and hydrological principles to risk building in the certainty of regular flooding?

As taxpayers and ratepayers funding this project, surely, we should receive full accountability for such a disaster.

John Leahy

Wilton Road

Cork