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Flood group considering suing Limerick County Council
THE chairman of the Newcastle West flood victims committee has said that the group is strongly considering suing Limerick County Council for alleged bad planning decisions that members feel contributed to the infamous flooding of the town 12 months ago.
Pat O'Donovan said the group will be "keeping a close eye" on the result of legal action being taken by flood victims in Ballymena against their local council for permitting developments that they feel led to serious floods in the County Antrim town in August 2008.
Mr O'Donovan said that the Newcastle West flood committee, which is angry that the Government has yet to provide any money to the worst-hit flood victims, may yet take Limerick County Council to court on similar grounds.
"People are still in fear every time the water comes up a bit. The fear we have is that while there was up over six feet of water in some places in the flood, there only needs to be half that amount of water again to do the same amount of damage.
"This 'once in 650 years' business is nonsense. The people in North Dublin were told last year that their flash floods would only happen once every 150 years, and nine months later it happened again." Director of planning at Limerick County Council Tom Enright said that recent planning decisions were assessed in the independent consultant's report, and it was determined that these did not contribute to what was a "once-off flooding event."
He said that several key developments in the town had been appealed to An Bord Pleanala, who had assessed all environmental criteria before giving them the go-ahead. The flood victims committee's legal threat comes in the wake of a move by the Office of Public Works (OPW) to allay fears that too little work is being done to ensure that serious flooding does not happen in the town again.
A spokesperson for the OPW told the Limerick Leader this week that a number of Newcastle West residents had contacted them to complain about the lack of money the town has received, and stressed that flood relief for victims was not a matter for their office, rather the Department of Social and Family Affairs and local community welfare officers.
The spokesperson also provided an update on works that are either completed or ongoing, including the installation of a flood alarm in the centre of the town and the construction of a flood wall along the river behind the Courtenay Lodge Hotel.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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Light rain
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