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EchoLive.ie, 14 Nov
Councillors have discussed the recent flooding during Storm Babet and
measures to prevent a recurrence.
Cork County Council seeking up to €63m funding to tackle Storm Babet
damage
Midleton was one of the areas worst impacted during Storm Babet.
Picture: Guileen Coast Guard
Concubhar Ó Liatháin
AN application for up to €63m in funding to pay for the damage
inflicted around the county during Storm Babet is to be sent by Cork
County Council to the Government this week, the local authority’s CEO
Valerie O’Sullivan has told councillors.
Ms O’Sullivan was speaking as councillors called for various measures
to prevent a recurrence of the widespread flooding that caused
devastation in many areas, particularly in Midleton and around east
Cork.
“The overall claim that will be submitted, and some of it has already
been submitted, will be between €58m and €63m,” said Ms O’Sullivan.
She said that a claim had been sent to the Department of Transport at
the beginning of the month for between €50m and €55m for damages to
bridges.
“The rest is for damage to our roads right across the county,” she
said.
A motion from East Cork Municipal District seeking assistance and
answers to questions was raised at the meeting by the district
chairwoman, Fine Gael councillor Susan McCarthy, who said it was no
surprise that a large number of motions needed to be discussed given
the “devastation” the district had experienced.
Ms McCarthy hailed the response of the Government which, she said, had
acted promptly to provide guarantees of assistance to businesses and
residential property owners and a guarantee that costs incurred by Cork
County Council in resolving the flood damage would be recompensed.
“It’s very important to highlight here where people have fallen between
the cracks or where estates are in a bit of trouble as they don’t know
where to go with this, some of them don’t know if they’ve been taken in
charge,” she said.
One of the unexpected costs which has arisen was the inflated
electricity bills which were being expected by businesses and residents
who had been running humidifiers constantly since Storm Babet to dry
out their premises.
“In my own business we won’t be open for at least four weeks and we
have to run dehumidifiers every day, just to alleviate that cost for
people would be great,” said Cllr Ann Marie Ahern.
While the motion focused on east Cork, councillors from throughout the
county made contributions relating to their own areas.
The majority of councillors supported the dredging of rivers as a tried
and trusted method of reducing the risk of flooding, while a number of
elected members said there was substantial research in the UK which
suggested that dredging could lead rivers to run faster and exacerbate
flooding.
County Mayor Cllr Frank O’Flynn said that common sense had to be used
as the experience was, where rivers were dredged at regular intervals,
this mitigated against the risk of flooding.
“I lived next to Araglen River, a place called Coolesheen Bridge, and
every year that was dredged and it never flooded.”
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