This article is from page 4 of the 2014-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
MORE than 16 families in the Cloughaninchy area of Quilty face an anxious wait this winter as it is now seems virtually certain that no fresh flood defenses will be in place before next year.
Residents of the area, which bore the brunt of severe storms in January and February of this year, face an anxious winter with little protection from a similar storm or high tide event. According to local councillor Michael Hillery (FF), Clare County Council have had its hands tied on this issue – as central government have yet to respond to a funding request following St Bridget’s Day Storm last February.
“There is no firm date for works to start in the Quilty, Tromera and Cloughaninchy coastline.
“We are currently awaiting a response from central government in relation to the February storm damage assessment and coastline protection works. When this response is received we will be able to progress with a fully resourced programme of coastline repair work for the entire county,” said a council spokesperson last week.
According to Cllr Hillery, people in the area are already starting to get nervous ahead of possible storms this winter.
“The council has put in a request but the Government has not responded so money can’t be allocated and work can’t be done. The council’s hands are tied, there is nothing they can do until they get some response from government,” he said.
“The residents are very concerned, especially for their homes, but the local roads and farms were also badly effected last year. It’s already too late, nothing will happen this year.
“The whole area are concerned but especially the residents of Cloughaninchy. These people are facing next winter with nothing in place to protect them if something happens again this year.
“We had a number of Ministers down here and they all made promises. It really was just a PR visit and nothing has actually happened.”