Wexford councillor claims cause of flooding is being ignored by the OPW – ‘This map does not tell lies’
Wexford PeopleWhile families and businesses count the cost of yet another flood in Bridgetown, thoughts have quickly turned to ensuring what happened last weekend does not happen again. However, given the village’s recent history, which includes the catastrophic floods of Christmas 2020, those living in Bridgetown could be forgiven for asking why they continue to wait for the long-awaited, much-mooted, flood defence scheme.
At the November meeting of the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD), as councillors and engineers continued to digest the horror stories relayed to them by residents, an update on the status of the scheme was requested by cathaoirleach of the district, Councillor Ger Carthy.
“We know that Wexford County Council (WCC) is progressing a report in relation to a flood defence scheme for Bridgetown and I would hope the Minister for the Office of Public Works (OPW) – Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran’ – will look favourably upon that report.
“This scheme is now urgent, but it’s not straightforward because there’s issues pertaining to lands further down.”
Senior engineer for the RMD, Michael Brazzill, confirmed that the report was “progressing well” and was due back in the coming days
“It’s been a long, ongoing process, there’s a lot of surveys been carried out there. This is a feasibility report, the next stage will be the design, at the moment it’s about deciding what can work and what should work. Once we have the design we will put it out for public consultation.”
Although nothing has been set in stone as of yet, Mr Brazzill said the scheme would involve raising the “banks and walls along the canal in the village”, installing “overflow pumps which will pump back into the river”, and “pump stations on both sides of the village”.
"Once the report is in and it’s agreed with WCC and the OPW it will progress to the application for funding. Hopefully it will be approved shortly thereafter,” he stated.
In the interim, Mr Brazzill wished to address what some were calling “misinformation” regarding the cause of the floods in Bridgetown last weekend.
“Just to clarify, Bridgetown is on a different system to Kilmore, there’s two separate drainage patterns. Bridgetown drains to the sea at Blackstone, that’s its drainage outlet. It is not connected to Kilmore which has a separate system and a sluice gate system in Crossfarnogue.
"We spoke to the OPW and it confirmed Bridgetown is not connected to Kilmore.”
“We have two drainage systems and, in the last flood, we pumped the water from the Kilmore system into Bridgetown,” he said. “The sluice gate in Kilmore is not letting the water out fast enough, in times past it was operated manually and a huge volume of water could leave that area.”
The suggestion that the senior engineer knew less about the drainage systems in the district than a mere layman irked Cllr Carthy.
“What’s the relevance of Kilmore in relation to Bridgetown?” he asked Cllr Codd. “You’re talking about the lowlands affecting Bridgetown, I don’t know if that’s factually correct. I would certainly side with our engineer who’s qualified to speak on this and who has sought counsel from the OPW on how this works.”
Addressing Cllr Codd’s theory, Mr Brazzill said the only time the two drainage systems “ever interacted was due to a failure of a flood bank in 2021”.
House surrounded by water after the flooding in Bridgetown on Saturday morning. Pic: Jim Campbell
But the Aontú councillor was only getting started. Producing a map from his desk, he proceeded to explain the machinations of the RMD’s drainage system to Mr Brazzill.
“There’s the map, it has two water systems,” he said, pointing out the locations to the engineer. “The sluice gate in Kilmore has a very short distance to the sea, the water must travel to Cullenstown to get out. Every resident in Kilmore will tell you that, on Saturday, they looked out at the canal and the gripes and saw they were filled to the maximum and the water was not being released.
"There’s two waterways, one tidal and one which needs to be released quicker into the sea. This map does not tell lies.”
Despite Cllr Codd’s orations and his teaching background, he had managed to lose large sections of the room during his two-minute explainer.
“I’m completely confused,” said Cllr Lisa McDonald. “I didn't hear of any flood in Kilmore last weekend. And I speak to the locals too, not just you.”
“Did we receive any reports of flooding in Kilmore?” asked Cllr Carthy.
“We got one call,” said Mr Brazzill. “I didn’t hear of any flooding there bar the one person Cllr Codd sent my way. The OPW said there were no issues detected in Kilmore, it checked the levels at the pumping stations and said they were at reasonable operation.
Cllr Jim Codd in Bridgetown during the floods.
“The OPW has said you (Cllr Codd) need to bring these concerns to its representatives, it is responsible for those gates. Have you contacted the OPW?”
“The OPW should come to our meetings,” replied Cllr Codd.
“Have you spoken to the OPW?” asked Mr Brazzill.
“I have called for the OPW often to come to our meetings.”
With the meeting threatening to descend into farce, Cllr Carthy reminded Cllr Codd that, ultimately, the issues he was raising could not be resolved in the chamber.
“The OPW is responsible for that area of the RMD, not Michael, the funding for the Bridgetown scheme will come from the OPW. We can’t fix all the problems. You need to communicate with the OPW, bring its staff to Kilmore, show them what’s going on there, and let them answer your questions. We do not control sluice gates or valves on its property.
“You’re blaming our senior engineer for everything and it stops now.”
Cllr McDonald went a step further, suggesting that Cllr Codd’s exhortations amounted to scaremongering.
“In relation to the flood defence scheme we’re awaiting, that has nothing to do with the misinformation or misrepresentation with regards to the sluice gate in Kilmore, these are completely separate and distinct issues. This is doing the public a disservice and is fuelling fear in our communities.”
Despite facing such antipathy to his suppositions, Cllr Codd had one last salvo in him.
“Let me be clear, we pumped the water from one system into the other during the last big flood,” he said.
“The bank breached and the water went over the bank, that’s not pumping,” countered Mr Brazzill.
Somehow, after all that, Cllr Aoife Rose O’Brien managed to get a question in about the potential cost of the scheme.
“Between €3-5m,” replied Mr Brazzill.