Planning needs to be more rigorous on flood plains – Manseragh

PLANNING guidelines governing the construction of houses on flood plains will need to be more rigorous in the future, according to Minister of State for the Office of Public Works (OPW), Deputy Martin Manseragh.

Speaking to The Clare Champion on Saturday, Deputy Manseragh conceded that the construction of housing estates on flood plains is a national issue, which has to be considered when it comes to flood protection works.
Deputy Manseragh confirmed that he and Environment  Minister John Gormley had issued the definitive guidelines for planning in terms of development on flood plains.
“There is no doubt that planning guidelines will have to be more rigorous. It is true to say a number of cities and towns have historically been built in places where they should not have been constructed.
“We have to work on what we have now. In light of the knowledge at our disposal, we don’t want to make the situation even worse,” he said.
Asked if the new planning guidelines were too late and should have been provided 10 years ago, Minister Manseragh noted that they should have been provided some 20 or 30 years ago.
However, he admitted that planning authorities had to learn from what is happening now and there is no doubt that flood protection has to be taken into account when future developments are being considered.
Having visited Clonmel before he stopped off to meet the multi-agency crisis team in Ennis, Deputy Manseragh said the flooding in the Clare capital was the worst in living memory, while in Clonmel, it was only regarded as the eighth or ninth worst.
He explained the River Fergus Flood Protection Works are designed to deal with a one-in-100-year flooding event.
He stressed there is a general consensus that the current flood protection works at the Parnell Street car park, which are not fully completed, had protected houses and businesses in the town.
He said that his job is to ensure that funding would be made available for phase two and three of the project, so that more protection could be provided for the core of the town.
“The flooding in the Gort Road Industrial Estate wasn’t foreseen. Apart from short-term actions, we will have to sit down and see what needs to be put in place in the long-term. We have a scheme in place to deal with short-term projects, which don’t require studies.
“The whole country will be surveyed under the EU Flood Directive to examine the situation as it is, historically and in the context of climate change,” he said.