This article is from page 8 of the 2007-11-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
A LONG-AWAITED flood study report on the greater Ennis area is recommending the freezing of devel- opment on 210 acres of land in the towns and its surrounds.
The consultants’ report also recom- mends spending €15 million to carry out works on barrage, river channel and an N18 bridge upgrade.
The recommendations in the study report, entitled “Ennis Main Drain- age: Lower Fergus Floodplain Stor- age Areas’, recommends that the “flood risk designation” be extended in the Ennis and Environs Develop- ment Plan, the removal of “other settlement lands” designation from development exclusion zone and the keeping of open spaces at existing ground levels.
The consultants discounted a sepa- rate option costed at €32 million which recommended the relocation of the barrage at Clarecastle. They stated that it would have severe 1m- pacts on pristine undeveloped areas and may be blocked by the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley.
The option discounted also rec- ommended an exclusion zone of 40 AYO Kone
The environmental appraisal of the
options included the potential 1m- pacts on fish, bird, vegetation, water quality, archaeology and recreational Viston
The consultants discounted two other options costed at €10 million and €7 million respectively.
Developers have been eagerly await- ing the publication of the report and how it impacts on proposed develop- ments on the environs of Ennis.
One of those developments im- pacted upon includes the Stephen Harris €50 million retail park on the outskirts of Ennis with the publica- tion of the flooding study one of the reasons why the plan has been put on hold.
However, it 1s not known in the presentation made to _ councillors from the Ennis area how the flood- ing study will impact on the Harris plan and other planning applications currently before the council.
In a statement earlier this year, the council stated that the flood manage- ment study “will have a significant influence as regards what is appro- priate and feasible from a develop- ment point of view in the lands in the vicinity of the Lower River Fergus”.
The report was conducted against the backdrop of severe flooding in the town in 1995 and 1999.