Mayo County Council expects to have a report by early next year from the expert consultant group that was hired to investigate the causes of the flooding in Carrowholly in Westport last Christmas, that saw a stone bridge washed away and a number of people cut off by the tides.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Brendan Mulroy raised the issue at this week’s meeting of the West Mayo Municipal District and questioned when the report would be ready. Senior engineer for Mayo County Council, Padraig Walsh, told the meeting: “In terms of the Carrowholly study, we’ve been in touch with the consultant engineers who have been doing the study and we should have it available in draft form January. We will then have to see what the recommendations are and it goes from there.”
Independent Cllr Christy Hyland asked if the study would address issues such as coastal protection. Mr Walsh responded: “What we asked the consultants to do was to identify the exact mechanism of the flood event in Carrowholly. It was not straightforward. There were a number of factors that fed into it and to understand the full sequence of events as to what happened. Having first understood it, to then come up with an informed recommendation of how to deal with it, that’s the aim and what the report will be about.”
