North Kilkenny flooding dominates discussions at Castlecomer council meeting

Flooding dominated discussions at the latest Castelcomer Municipal District meeting.

Councillor Michael McCarthy outlined how the flooding, which occurred on October 27 and 28, caused massive damage in North Kilkenny, describing the floods as ‘a horrible time for homeowners’.

Cllr McCarthy recalled how a woman stranded in a flash flood very early on Friday morning on the Johnstown Road in Freshford, had suffered a traumatic experience until she was rescued by another motorist. The councillor also said that the exceptional amount of rain that had fallen to cause the flooding may not be a one-off event.

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“It is big worry for residents of Freshford that there will be another heavy rainfall,” he said. “They are not sleeping due to their anxiety.”

Cllr McCarthy continued that there were about 20 premises affected by the Freshford flooding and that only for the fast actions of the fire service people could have been injured on the night. He requested that the meeting in December be used to ‘fast-forward some solution’ to the issue of flooding in the town.

Cllr Mary Hilda Cavanagh, the chair of the meeting stated that it had been ‘a horrendous situation in Freshford’ and also expressed her thanks to all the staff who had worked hard to mitigate the effects of the floods.

“It was a full four years since ‘Boxer’ Moran had made a commitment to address flooding in Kilkenny and it was absolutely terrifying that flood works could still be years down the road,” she said. “There may be more rain - we don’t know what the winter will bring.”

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Cllr Cavanagh said that climate change with wetter winters meant there was now the likelihood of floods where they never happened before. She also addressed the issue of cars pulling wide to avoid flooding on the road surface and the potentially dangerous hazard this presented to oncoming traffic, adding that it was ‘an accident waiting to happen’.

Cllr Denis Hynes (Sinn Fein) also said that it was ‘very frustrating’ there was no action or work done to date on the promised flood works.

Cllr Michael Delaney (Fianna Fail) said that it was ‘horrendous’, the amount of rain that fell. “Maybe easy fixes were being missed to alleviate the pressure on families who were suffering,” he said. He enquired about easier availability of sandbags and whether a place could be identified to get them quickly in an emergency.

Cllr John Brennan (Fine Gael) said that existing infrastructure is not able to deal with the weather and that possible funding needs to be obtained in advance to plan for these types of weather events. He hoped that there could be ‘fast track funding’ made available now to deal with the situation.

Cllr Pat Fitzpatrick said that there was an update needed on the flood works, with Freshford a priority. He also commended the emergency staff on their work, while noting that the public are ‘losing patience’ and that the lack of progress on flood works in Freshford was disappointing. He acknowledged that it was a very serious situation and that councillors are ‘putting as much pressure as we can to get it sorted’.

“There is some block somewhere,” he said. “With the climate changing Kilkenny is facing more floods."

Philippe Beubry, the Senior Executive Engineer for the Ballyragget area, outlined the works done to alleviate potential flooding including grants received for drainage, saying that there had been a lot of money spent to date.

He explained that sweepers had been deployed to clear fallen leaves and that lots of sandbags had also been provided. While measures had been taken in September and October maintenance was ongoing and they sometimes struggled with the resources available.

He suggested prioritising public roads first and then working on private lanes with the funding available.

Cllr Mary Hilda Cavanagh, while acknowledging the amount of drainage work done, said that it was a case of ‘much done, more to do’.

Cllr Michael Delaney then asked if drainage might possibly be subcontracted out or put out to tender.

Cllr Michael McCarthy said that, in his opinion, there was an issue with the Fisheries Board and that it was ‘over-regulated and slow-moving’.

He said there should be deregulation to ‘get projects moving at a faster pace’.

In the aftermath of the flooding, crews have been busy all week cleaning up grit and debris deposited by the flood waters.