Bid to stop Blackpool flood scheme in order to save otters

A campaign group has applied to the High Court to challenge the Government’s plans for a flood relief scheme in Cork city which they say will destroy a river and the habitat it provides to otters.

The Government approved a €20.5m flood relief scheme for the River Bride in Blackpool. But that decision may now be challenged by a judicial review, which has been applied for by the Save Our Bride Otters group.

The flood relief scheme would culvert a 350m stretch of the River Bride to reduce flooding risks in Blackpool village, aiming to protect up to 290 residential and commercial properties.

The area suffered major flooding in 2012 after torrential rain, prompting authorities to develop the flood relief scheme for the area.

But Save Our Bride Otters said the plan to cover over the river will destroy the habitat for fish, birds, bats, and otters, while also severing the community’s connection to its industrial history.

There is a feasible alternative in which flood water could be stored upstream in the catchment, as has been implemented by the Office of Public Works (OPW) in Clonakilty, the campaigners said.

This is cheaper, by the OPW’s own estimates, is environmentally friendly, and would be enthusiastically welcomed by all in the Blackpool community, the group added.

It said: “Instead, the OPW decided to spend in excess of a decade fostering division with a proposal we feel has been set up to fail in the planning, or consenting, process, denying the residents and businesses of Blackpool the flood relief we need and deserve.”

The current plan is also incompatible with European environmental directives that have been transposed into Irish law, the group added.

“Save Our Bride Otters has applied to the High Court for leave to take a judicial review against what we consider to be an entirely unnecessary destruction of the River Bride in Blackpool by a flood relief option being stubbornly advanced by the OPW,” the group said in a statement.

“In the OPW experts’ own words, the currently preferred option for flood relief will result in ‘significant, negative, and permanent impacts’ on fish, birds, bats, and otters. The OPW has spent 12 years advancing the covering over, and entombing, of the River Bride, thereby burying Blackpool’s living link to its industrial past and the green and blue artery connected to the heart of our community.

“The OPW... has progressed with it since 2014 in the face of extensive opposition.”