Business owners in Cork city are coming under increased strain following several consecutive flooding incidents and are fast reaching breaking point, the President of Cork Business Association has warned.
There was flooding in many of the low-lying areas of Cork city centre adjacent to the River Lee on Sunday morning after high tides, heavy rain and strong winds.
Pat O'Connell said businesses are tired of a constant ream of excuses from Cork City Council and the OPW in relation to their failure to develop adequate flood relief schemes.
“There are a huge amount of problems. Not only in the sense that your premises is damaged but people are also not coming to town so your turnover and your business is impacted in that form,” he told RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke programme.
“Cars were damaged on the South Mall because of flooding. South Mall is one of the main streets in Cork. We get ministers down every time there is a flood and they say ‘Oh, this desperate we need to do something about this.’ And then the finance doesn’t come through.
“Businesses have come through the worst recession this country has ever suffered. Some businesses are literally hanging on by their finger tips. They can’t afford to be in this situation with flooding.”
Laurence Owens of the Cork Business Association called for funds for flood relief, insisting it is just not moving fast enough for traders.
“Back in 2014 the then Minister Brian Hayes said this project would be “Shovel ready” by 2015. I don’t see any shovels. We have only one block of construction put into place.
“I’ve been to Clonmel, I’ve been to Fermoy, I’ve been to Waterford. We are not in any way questioning the competency of the OPW. But what we are questioning is the timeline of affecting those plans.”
High tide
High tide in Cork city passed on Monday morning with no reports of additional flooding. However, low lying streets such as South Terrace, George’s Quay, South Mall and the lower end of Oliver Plunkett Street were all badly hit over the weekend.
In the county, the main street in Carrigaline, Catherine Street in Youghal, along with roads in Cobh, Kinsale, Midleton and Clonakilty were all under water for a time. Parts of the county bounds in Cork were also hit by snow. Electricity has also been restored to householders in the city and county impacted by outages.
Met Eireann has forecast more rain in Cork city and county for Monday afternoon and evening. Motorists are advised to be cautious over the next 24 hours and to plan their journeys in advance.
Flying slates
Slates were blown around because of high winds in Youghal over the weekend. Kay Condon, who runs a florist in Youghal told Cork’s Red FM that the weather conditions were very challenging for locals.
“We had a problem where I live myself up in Emmett Place with flying slates. It was just the wind was just ferocious. All we can do is just do our best and maybe down the line something will be done with the quay wall there to stop all that. Those people down there have put up with (flooding) for years.”
Meanwhile, efforts are being made to fast track parts of Cork city’s delayed flood relief project - the largest scheme of its kind in the history of the State. The public consultation phase of the multi million euro Blackpool flood defence plan was launched last November. It is likely to go on public display by the middle of this year with construction starting in 2017.
The OPW are actively working with Cork City Council to see if elements of the scheme for the northside of Cork city can be advanced in the interim. The plan will consist of new embankments, new walls, new culverts, the infilling of some open channels and the replacement of some bridges.
Flood relief
Meanwhile, solicitor Elaine O’Sullivan, who runs a legal practice on South Terrace near the city centre, accused the Government and Cork City Council of failing to deliver on flood relief for Cork city .
said that business owners were extremely fortunate not to be cleaning out their premises after the south channel of the Lee burst its banks at high tide yesterday morning and again last night.
“This weekend we saw a near catastrophic miss for the centre of Cork city as the Lee overflowed onto streets and close to many buildings. I run a legal practice on South Terrace which suffered minor flooding on Sunday and the service by the local authority was under par to say the least.”
According to Ms O’Sullivan, water was flowing over the footbridge at the College of Commerce and on to South Terrace for half an hour before the road was closed and this only happened some 15 minutes after she contacted Anglesea Street Garda Station to voice her concerns.
“Some 15 minutes later a council crew casually arrived and closed the road just minutes before the expected high tide. Where is the coordinated emergency action planning here? Traffic continued to travel the street even after closure signs had been erected.”
According to Ms O’Sullivan, buses weighing up to 20 tonnes continued to drive along South Terrace despite the signage with the result that floodwaters were washed towards buildings increasing the risk of them being flooded while there was no one to police the road closures.
“Many may have been following it on social media but the silence from our City Council on twitter, an effective media to communicate warnings and safety messages, was deafening. The council’s most recent tweet, as of Monday morning, was last Friday and related to the Pulses of Tradition.
“It is high time some of its €151 million budget and 6,500 staff paid €62 million get a living pulse into its services and communications,” said Ms O’Sullivan who pointed out that businesses in Cork city pay €66.7 million in rates and expect proper services in return.
“There is also a larger issue at play. Cork city suffered a catastrophic flood in 2009 and three more floods that I recall in recent years. We are Ireland’s lowest lying City – 2009 is seven years ago. That is over 2,000 days, nearly 50,000 hours and still work has not begun on a flood defence scheme.”
“Funding has been allocated to trophy projects like an events centre and a new GAA stadium that may fill once a year. This is farcical. Our city is the daily fulcrum of our regional economy and it cannot continue to operate with the ongoing threat of floods.
“It is urgently needed to bring stability to the infrastructure in our city. The €40 million contribution to the stadium would have been much better spent on a key infrastructural project set to cost €50-€60 million especially as 80 per cent of City Council’s income comes from within the city boundaries.”