Council faces race against time to protect Kilmore coastline
WEXFORD County Council (WCC) is facing a race against time to protect a coastline which has lost more than ten metres to erosion since last winter. Seaview, in Kilmore, has been battered by storms in recent months and large chunks of the coast have disappeared almost overnight.
There are 14 houses immediately at risk, with homeowners potentially losing access to their homes and, eventually, the homes themselves. However, plans are in place to install protective measures at the beach, and WCC is currently awaiting approval from the Office of Public Works (OPW) to fund consultants to ‘prepare a detailed design of coastal protection works’, stating ‘ the priority at this stage is to try and protect these properties.’
In addition, WCC is also working to develop a new slipway to provide access to the beach at Seaview. The original slipway, thought to have been constructed in the 1930s, was decimated by storms in 2012 and 2013 and was initially repaired at a cost of approximately €25,000.
Further rock revetment works were carried in 2014 out to protect public and private roads at an additional cost of €110,000. Yet, in November 2017, as the storms continued, the slipway was considered too dangerous to use, fenced off and then removed altogether.
In 2019 WCC designed three potential solutions to the issue, slipway designs which they brought to councillors in the Rosslare Municipal District for further discussion. At that time, it was decided that a shallow gradient ramp costing €350,000 would be the best option moving forward. However, before WCC could begin that project the erosion in the area worsened to the extent that it took priority. Plans to construct the new slipway were subsequently shelved.
A total of €204,500 has been spent trying to make the area safe and to provide access to its beach, and now, given the critical position it finds itself in, WCC is determined to ensure it develops a long-term solution to these ongoing issues.
At a special meeting attended by residents last month, Gerry Forde and George Colfer of WCC’s Environmental Department outlined the plans in place to safeguard the coastline at Seaview and provide access to its beach.
They explained that, although the OPW would only fund the coastal protection works and not the slipway, the consultant appointed to design the coastal protection works would also be ‘asked to look at (an) optimum location for access point to the beach.’
‘If the consultant’s recommendation is to include an access point as part of coastal protection works, negotiations will be held with landowners to allow the following: Permission to erect access in a section of the coastal protection works. Permission to extend public road to the new access so that the general public can access the beach.’
Mr Forde has confirmed that coastal protection works will commence once ‘tendering is completed’ and that access to the beach will be provided at the ‘same time as the construction of coastal protection works’.
Cllr Jim Moore is someone who has been visiting Seaview since childhood. He has been campaigning on behalf of the local people there and liaising with both WCC and the OPW to find a solution to these problems.
And he says the hold-ups have been a result of central governance not prioritising the country’s coastlines. ‘From my point of view the coastal erosion issue has lacked urgency from a national response which has inhibited WCC in responding,’ said Cllr Moore. ‘People are going to lose their homes not just their houses with the consequences of the erosion. I have secured agreement on a special meeting of the SPC with the OPW in attendance. Communities feel vulnerable and need positive action. The communities of Seaview area are, I am afraid, an example of what many more communities will face in the near future.’