11 October 2012
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Clonakilty Town Mayor, Cllr. Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin responding to last night’s flooding of the town for the third time since the end of June, is calling on the Council officials to “get the finger out now and commence relief works”.
SF Cllr Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin
The Town Mayor praised the swift response of the Gardaí, Civil Defence, Town Foreman and Council Staff and volunteers who acted to ensure that properties were spared a repeat of the devastation of the previous floods on 28th June and 28th August.
“As far as I am aware, there was small flooding of a couple of premises last night, and the quick action of the authorities ensured that havoc was spared on people” He continued: “However, the usual areas of Casement St., Wolfe Tone St and nearby areas were flooded and were impassable. I’m told this morning that 23mm (almost an inch), of rain fell in a couple of hours again last night. Once again, drains were unable to take this huge volume of water, and streets flooded. Once the rain stopped, the drains continued to take the excess water off the streets, and within half an hour, they were clear of water. While we are thankful that there was minimal damage to properties on this occasion, on a human level this is again devastating for the people of our town. People simply cannot be allowed to continue to live with this fear every time there’s heavy rain. There is real fear, trauma and anxiety in the people. At last weeks council meeting, a number of proposed works were outlined which are due to be completed before Christmas. I am now calling of the relevant officials in the council to get the fingers out and commence this work immediately. I am demanding that we see JCB’s on the streets next Monday and the works commence. I also call again on the people of the town to engage in large numbers with the OPW Public consultation process next Tuesday. We’ve had meetings, discussion, debates for three months. It’s now time for physical action on the ground”