Experts to speak about natural flood defences in Midleton 

Strategies aimed at using principles of land use to build up natural flood resilience could be implemented quickly and a long time before a major flood relief scheme can be put in place in East Cork, a local councillor has suggested.

Many homes and businesses in the town were destroyed due to flood devastation caused by Storm Babet last year.

Social Democrats councillor Liam Quaide, is hosting an event next Tuesday entitled ‘Nature-Based Solutions to Flood Management in East Cork’ which will be addressed by two experts in natural flood defences, Professor Mary Bourke of Trinity College and Dr Paul Quinn of the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen.

Mr Quaide has also said that a national development policy on land use and flood management was needed as a matter of urgency and suggested that farmers could be paid a premium by the State to allow some of their fields to flood, to construct dams or wetlands or plant trees and hedgerows.

Prof Bourke and Dr Quinn have been engaged by Cork County Council and the Office of Public Works to develop an “opportunity map of potential areas of land upstream from Midleton where natural flood solutions may be implemented”.

Midleton’s flood relief scheme was promised after a major flooding event in 2015 but little if any progress had been made by October 18 last year when floods associated with Storm Babet caused major damage to shops and homes in the town and surrounding areas. Now it is understood that a planning application for a flood relief scheme in the town won’t be ready to be submitted before the end of 2025 or early 2026 and the completion of the scheme will take several years after that.

Mr Quaide said that he had been urging Cork County Council to explore the potential for natural flood defences in East Cork since last October.

“There have been many examples of successful projects in the UK and some in Ireland that have been based on these principles of working with land use to build up flood resilience around towns and villages,” he said.

“Provided landowner consent is obtained, these projects do not require planning approval and therefore results can be seen in much shorter time periods than with standard Flood Relief Schemes.”

The event hosted by Mr. Quaide will be held on Tuesday next, August 20, at 7.30pm in the My Place Community Centre in Midleton.