Quay Wall campaigners accused of spreading "misinformation" over flood defences

A SENIOR consultant engineer has accused the Save Cork City campaigners of spreading "misinformation" about the Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme.

Ken Leahy, a consultant with Arup, the firm designing the flood scheme, said that people were entitled to their views, but that Save Cork City had not engaged with them as part of the official process.

Save Cork City has called for a complete rethink of the current flood plans, claiming they will damage the city's historic relationship with the River Lee.

"We've said to them, 'engage with us. Can you give us your specifics on things like the North Mall? Like Sullivan's Quay?' They have, unfortunately, not done that, and they have continued through social media and otherwise to put out information," said Mr Leahy.

Save Cork City, in a response issued last night, said that it has been denied meetings despite requests.

"We have requested a meeting with OPW/Arup in relation to the technical aspects of the Arup/OPW plan. That request for a meeting was denied. Instead, we have been asked to provide a list of questions by email. We would like to engage with Arup in a meaningful way but the terms of any such engagement have been limited by them to discussions on specific places and to specific topics which are unrelated to the real underlying flaws in the proposal," said the group.

Meanwhile, Mr Leahy, speaking at a meeting with county councillors, also took issue with Save Cork City's claims about the height of flood walls along the river bank.

"They've said you would not be able to see the river, that we would block off the relationship with the river. I've shown, when you look at the specifics, that we are creating almost a kilometre of new river walkways. That in no place is the view from the publicly accessible areas greater than the guardrail height. The change is negligible. If anything it is an improvement."

"Again, over the weekend, they were putting up things showing walls that are two metres high. Again, that is not correct," he said.

Save Cork City said that it was not misleading people, and all of their campaigning was based on Arup and the OPW's designs.