FERMOY WEIR REPORT DUE THIS MONTH

The public consultation process is now complete with over 100 submissions received by Cork County Council on the design for the Fermoy weir and fish by-pass.

At this week’s meeting of the Cork County Council Northern Committee, council members heard that submissions from this process are currently being reviewed and a summary of the report will follow.

Senior Engineer for Flood Projects Kevin Costello, told the council that a second report will then be prepared on the recommended or preferred option for the scheme and is due to be issued to the council by consultants this month.

“Design and planning documentation and preparation including NIS is to proceed once the recommended option is adopted and the planning application to An Bord Pleanala will also proceed at that stage,” he told the council.

The council were also informed that a service level agreement regarding the Fermoy Flood Relief Scheme is to follow on naturally from the agreement with the Mallow service level agreement for finalisation. This is being progressed between the OPW and Cork County Council with a view to completion by the end of this year.

Mr Costello went on to state that Fermoy Southside Flood Relief Scheme is being operated by the OPW who have formally appointed FM Environmental to administrate and maintain the pumping stations on the southside of Fermoy.

“OPW are reviewing floodgates on the Southside. That’s really an operational issue and it will just make it more convenient to close floodgates rather than erecting barriers for some of the lower flood events,” Mr Costello added.

On the topic of flood relief schemes, CFRAMS (OPW’s grand plan for flood schemes nationwide) was also discussed, in particular, the two North Cork schemes in Rathcormac and Kanturk.

Both Rathcormac and Kanturk are in the second tranche of the 10-year scheme, which was approved in May 2018.

The topic of CFRAMS has been on the agenda for ‘quite a while’, according to Mr Costello who told the council that although updates had been sought from the OPW by Cork County Council, no response has been forthcoming as of yet.

Cork County Council had also applied for minor funding to relieve flooding surrounding one particular household in Castletownroche.

Further information was requested from the OPW issued last July, however, the council are still awaiting a response on this matter also. “We’ve emailed them on a number of occasions so we are still awaiting a response,” Mr Costello said.