Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A COMMUNITY GROUP in Wicklow has said some 500 homes in Little Bray will be at an increased risk of flooding if a planned development on low-lying land is not modified.
Members of the group Swap (Safety with Alternative Plan) said the development of a town centre is planned on a natural floodplain that protects their homes.
They are calling on Wicklow County Council to relocate the new town centre development which has planning permission until 2020.
The group want the area, which is located at the old golf links in Bray, re-zoned as open space.
“We don’t want to scupper the development, we simply want it pushed it back and to leave the natural floodplain free, so that if floods hit the town again, the waters will have somewhere to go,” said Noeleen McManus from Swap.
“My home has flooded twice in my lifetime. It is very frightening, it never leaves you,” explained McManus, who said her elderly mother also lived in the house.
“There are a lot of elderly and vulnerable people living in the area. Many of the houses are single-storey for that reason,” she explained.
The area of concern to residents is located between the Dargle Road and the harbour area by the sea. It was zoned for high density building in 2005.
In 2010, planning permission was granted for a new town centre on the former Bray Golf Club lands, owned then by development company Pizarro. However, when the recession hit the group went into receivership and the development did not proceed.
Despite a receiver being in place, the planning permission is still live.
The granting of the original planning permission for retail and residential units was subject to the agreement that Pizarro would pay for the town’s new Flood Protection Scheme along the river.
Hurricane Charlie
In 1984, Bray was badly flooded during Hurricane Charlie. It caused catastrophic damage to homes in the area, and the army had to be called in rescue some residents.
When Pizarro went bust, the work on the new flood scheme stalled. Eventually, the government had to step in to complete the flood defence works.
The €46 million scheme was only officially opened at a ceremony in Bray before Christmas by Minister of State Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran.
The River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme was be officially opened by Mr Kevin “Boxer” Moran T.D. in Nov. Over a 4 year period, the #OurTownOurRiver updates & newsletter reached out to an incredible 140k users #ThisHappened pic.twitter.com/htUqfDLStT
— bray.ie (@bray_ie) December 29, 2017
Independent local councillor Joe Behan said he supports the groups call, stating that no one is trying to prevent the development from going forward, but are merely trying to move the building a few hundred feet back to higher land.
Flood defences
“The residents main concern that if for some reason the new flood defences fail, and their houses are flooded, the open space along the side of the river would act somewhat like a saviour, as it would allow the water to flow onto the field or flood plain. If there are high-rise apartments and shops built on the floodplain that won’t happen,” he said, adding that the planning permission allows for the development to come right up to the river bank wall.
Behan said the council officials are reluctant to change the plans, but he argues the development of a town centre, which he said would be about the third of the size of Dundrum Shopping Centre, isn’t suited to the area anymore due to a new shopping centre on the Main Street commencing shortly, and due to the concerns about traffic in the area.
He said there are concerns that despite the new flood defences being in place, that the area could still flood.
“No one can predict climate change and the extreme weather events we have witnessed lately,” said Behan.
Wicklow TD Sinn Féin’s John Brady agrees. He told TheJournal.ie that people in the town welcomed the launch of the new flood defence scheme last year which will defend against a 200-year tidal flood event and a 100-year flood event.
“There are concerned residents living in that area that have been hammered by flood waters in the last couple of years, and who are very conscious that the flood plain that runs parallel to the golf course,” he said.
“Keeping the floodplain as an open space is a safety valve,” explained Brady, who said that it has been acknowledged that flood defences can fail in cases of big floods.
He said not building on the land, and keeping it open, would not bypass the new flood defence scheme, but compliment it.
McManus of the Swap group said she believes if there were concerns in a more affluent area of the town, the residents would be listened to.
“It is a no brainer,” said McManus of the Swap group, adding: “Flood defences can fail.”
Wicklow County Council is due to vote on the Bray Development Plan on Monday.
This is the first time that 32 councillors from around the county will have a say in the development of Bray town.
The last development plan (which was from 2011-2017) was approved solely by Bray Town councillors under the old rules governing local authorities.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
If they build on the flood plain sue the council and An Bord Planala, don’t let them away with it.
@Mick12: 100% right , where’s the sustainability in the planning for Ireland .
Greed and incompetence .
@Mick12: not much good then tho if their house keeps flooding, like closing the gate after the horse bolts.
@Mick12:
You’d have to prove in court that the development was directly responsible for the flooding – not that easy to do in practice.
Any comment or input from anyone who actually knows anything about rivers and flood plains? They say if they were in a more affluent part of bray they would be listened to, but the more affluent part of Bray is developed all the way to the river bank and all along the river bank. Sounds like the usual anti progress work shy NIMBY brigade.
@Flip off: Don’t build your house when the tide”s out
@Flip off: floodmaps.ie is an irish government website that lists all known floodplains. The planning authorities dont seem to know it exist
Spare a thought for the hard working politicians and public servants who might have to spend years getting to the position where a large brown envelope comes their way..
Then the media and the ungrateful public start shining lights in places that have nothing to do with them, and acting like they never understood the game..
Leave politicians alone ..
A small correction: Hurricane Charlie wasn’t in 1984, it was later than that. Citation: We moved to Bray in 1985 and it happened while werw living there
@Neal Ireland Hello.:
25 August 1986
@P.J. Nolan: uh oh. This could be a simple typo but it now makes me wonder if the story has been fact checked.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: It hit Ireland right after I was born which is how I knew the article got the date wrong!
It is also spelled Charley https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Charley_(1986)
People should not build or buy houses in locations that flood unless a discount is built into the price.
@Tom Molloy: would you even then???
A discount? What would you suggest! What discount is worth up having a house at risk from flooding?
How do you get planning permission for a flood plain???
Agreed, there is a hint in the name!
As a founder member of SWAP (interviewed for this article), may I clarify one or two things, please. First, my comments about being flooded sounded (out of context) as if stopping building on this floodplain would prevent flooding: it won’t. The floodplain on the old Golf Club lands acts as a safety valve. Each time we have been flooded the water passes straight through our homes onto this land until the sea and river can take it back. That immediacy of release after a flood is invaluable. Second, the OPW advise, and experts world-wide agree, that flood defences can fail (they failed on this land in 2015 and 2016), and that floodplains should therefore be kept free of development EVEN WITH FLOOD DEFENCES IN PLACE, as the water is then trapped on our side of the defences. This is on all the OPW literature, and in the Flood Risk Management Guidelines. So our arguments about not building on this floodplain are backed up by expert reports, Government guidelines, and two Bord Pleanala recommendations (the second over-ruled by their Board). Thirdly, we have never objected to development on the old golf links: we got our name (SWAP) from asking – since 2005 – that the parks planned for the high ground be brought down alongside the river, and the buildings put on the high ground. Houses or businesses built on a floodplain are liable to be flooded due to over-topping, failure of maintenance, and/or climate change: those buildings are also uninsurable. Our flood defences make us a lot safer, and we are very grateful for them, but there is no such thing as ‘acceptable risk’ when it comes to flooding. We need our safety valve still. Finally, @Fred Croydon, remarks such as ‘a bunch of uneducated locals’ from someone who doesn’t know us defines you much more clearly than it defines us. Btw, Neal Ireland Hello, you are perfectly correct about the date of Hurricane Charley: clearly a typo. The floods happened in 1905, 1931, 1965, and 1986!
Thought brown envelopes were done away with.
It’s ok folks, climate change isn’t real so the oceans rising also isn’t real!
Chinese hoax!
Ask the folks in clontarf for some of there wall. Sure they dont want it anyway.
What do they think it took 15 years to build flood defense
Cop on we need houses
have your say