Castletown River motion debated

AN ambitious motion calling for the development of Castletown River as an amenity was debated at the November meeting of the Dundalk Municipal Committee.

Cllr. Conor Keelan asked ‘ that this council, while recognising the present proposals to develop a pontoon/marina infrastructure in Drogheda, support the construction of a weir on the Castletown River to retain sufficient water to promote water-sport infrastructure and the feasibility of other river amenities. This will harness the river as an asset and improve its marketability as a tourism resource.’

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr. Keelan explained that this was a long standing call for development of the river, which he remarked was also highlighted in a number of Tidy Towns reports.

‘If the river was harnessed as resource it would improve the town’s standings,’ said Cllr. Keelan.

Senior Executive Officer, Frank Pentony said he ‘didn’t doubt the advantages’ of such developments at the Castletown River.

But he outlined the long history of this idea, which he noted was originally proposed by Councillor Keelan’s father, the former Councillor, Seamus Keelan.

Mr. Pentony added that the Castletown River is covered by a special protection status which presented challenges in terms of development.

He said the local authority had undertook for assessments to be carried of the area, and a detailed report was carried out which suggested it would cost €43 million to construct the weir alone.

The cost to the local authority of carrying out the initial inspections and the subsequent report was in the region of €50,000 at that time.

The senior officer said that if it ‘were somewhere like Dublin where you might have investors looking at it’ there could be a possibility.

But extensive funds like these would not be available to the local authority for such a project.

He said the he could look into making the original report available to the members to look at its findings.

Cllr. John McGahon said he would support such a motion, particularly as ‘in many other provincial towns in Ireland the river is the lifeblood of the town, but in Dundalk for some reason this was never developed.’

‘What’s good about this motion is that while in the short term it may not seem feasible with funding, it is laying down a vision for the long term future.’

But Cllr. Thomas Sharkey said he would be ‘wary of this motion turning into a trojan horse.’

Cllr. Peter Savage added that he had heard the motion before, and did want to commend it.

However he described a range of potential complications of ‘ putting in a weir that would close off the flow of water’ and possibly lead to flooding along the Castletown Road.

Chairman Cllr. Mark Dearey added: ‘I don’t think we can look at this outside of the context of climate change and flood plains.’

‘We need to preserve every scrap of our flood plains as the rest of the town depends upon it.’