17 July 2022
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
The Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Danny Collins is encouraging the people of Midleton and surrounding areas to have their say at the upcoming Midleton Flood Relief Scheme Public Participation Day which takes place on July 28th. The East Cork town has been severely and repeatedly impacted by major flood events over the past 30 years, with 400 homes and 180 businesses currently at serious risk of flooding during future events.
Cork County Council, working with the Office of Public Works, commissioned Arup to develop a viable, sustainable and cost-effective Flood Relief Scheme for the Midleton Area. It is designed to withstand a 1 in 100-year rainfall flood event as well as 1 in 200-year tidal flooding.
An Emerging Preferred Option has now been identified, taking into account public feedback received in 2020, and Cork County Council is now seeking additional public engagement. The open day will be held in the Midleton Park Hotel on Thursday, July 28th from 2.00pm to 8.00pm
Mayor Collins is hoping as many people as possible will attend, saying,
“We are delighted with the ongoing public engagement with the Midleton Flood Relief Scheme and we hope that continues at our upcoming Public Participation Day. This is a crucially important project that will directly affect future generations in the Midleton area. This is about mitigating the future risk of flooding. Some of the causes of the damaging events in the past have included rainfall, overspill from the Owenacurra and Dungourney Rivers, as well as both tidal and groundwater flooding. Everyone wants to safeguard their homes and businesses from flooding and this is exactly what our consultation process and the proposed flood relief scheme aims to do.”
Chief Executive of Cork County Council Tim Lucey added,
“More than 60 submissions were received in 2020 in relation to the various options presented, but the submissions also highlighted wider concerns about climate change and natural flood management which have been taken on board. On July 28th, our teams will be on hand to answer questions and then, following this round of public consultation, additional submissions received will be incorporated into the scheme design where possible. The planning application documents will then be prepared where there will also be future opportunities to make submissions.”
The Emerging Preferred Option includes upstream storage, public realm works, direct defences and groundwater control measures. It takes various constraints and opportunities that exist in Midleton into account and allows for integration of the scheme with various other Cork County Council schemes.
The general public and all interested parties will be able to examine the Emerging Preferred Option and meet the multi-disciplinary project team during the Public Participation Day on July 28th.
More information is available at www.midletonfrs.ie
