This article is from page 3 of the 2011-03-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
CLARE County Council insists that it has done ‘quite well’ in securing flood funding from the Office of Public Works since the flood disaster in November of 2009 – despite Clare receiving approval for fewer projects than other affected counties.
The local authority confirmed to The Clare People that they are awaiting decisions on “seven or eight” projects which they have submitted to the OPW for funding.
Since November of 2009 the local authority has received € 300,000 in OPW funding for the Gort Road Flood Relief Scheme; € 135,000 for schemes in the Watery Road, Elm Park and Fior Uisce areas of Ennis; and € 160,000 for a number of small flood relief schemes in the north Clare area.
This compares to an allocation to Cork County Council of € 1,805,000; Galway County Council of € 1,695,000 and Kildare County Council of € 1,466,000 in funding since the November 2009 flooding, although Clare County did receive in the region of € 9m to complete flood relief scheme in the Ennis Town Centre just before November 2009.
Clare County Council last week circulated details of progress made in securing flood funding from the OPW following a question raised at last month’s meeting of Clare County Council.
In addition to these schemes, Clare County Council is waiting for “confirmation of continuation of funding” for a flood relief scheme in the St Flannan’s/Ballybeg Area while flood defences have been improved in the Shannon area.
“Clare County Council has reviewed and will continue to review its inventory of flood defence infrastructure and equipment and is continuing to develop and improve its response strategies in the face of prospective major flood events as resources permit,” said Senior Engineer, Tom Tiernan.
“Records were retained in relation to all of the locations where flooding became a problem and these records have been/will be of benefit in the design of flood relief schemes and in informing the Councils Emergency Response Strategy as required in future.”
The council also pointed out that first phase of the Ennis Town Centre Flood Relief Scheme had just been substantially completed before November of 2009 at a cost of € 9,000,000.
A council spokesperson also confirmed that the tender process pertaining to the second phase of the Ennis Town Centre Scheme is substantially completed and the project is scheduled to get under way in the near future.