Mayo County Council had made numerous applications to the Office of Public Works for funding under a minor works scheme to make improvements to the Bachelors Walk area of the town, which has had a history of flooding and came under threat of flooding again recently, but had been turned down by the OPW on each of its previous applications. The council has a fresh application for funding under this scheme and this time around is hopeful of getting funding.
Paul Dolan, senior engineer with Mayo County Council, told the January meeting of the Ballina Municipal District: "Mayo County Council has a good record when it comes to applying for minor works, we have applied for numerous works schemes down through the years. Perhaps you're not aware of them, we applied in 2012 for Bachelors Walk and before that as well and got nowhere. This isn't the first application we've put in for minor works, but it seems to be out there that we haven't applied before. Of course it's down to the OPW if they are going to grant funding or not, but to date they haven't granted funding for any works in Bachelors Walk, but we had applications in."
He went on to say: "Bachelors Walk and Mayo are now part of the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management Project (CFRAM ), there was no application made since 2012, because the OPW's advice was that this was now part of a major scheme and minor works clearly wouldn't apply, but as a result of the recent flooding we decided in terms of Bachelors Walk, because it is probably the area most prone to flooding in Ballina to make an application for minor works, that went in two weeks ago. I don't know if it will be sucessful, it's funded through the OPW. But there is a bigger picture for Ballina, you have the likes of Clare Street and Cathedral Road and they all have to be dealt with as part of the major project. Bachelors Walk is part of the solution for Ballina, it's not the full solution. Hopefully we will get the funding for what we need and then we can get the design work and the environmental work done. Ballina was lucky in terms of flooding this year, the pumps did some good work, but the river levels weren't as high as they were two years ago, when Bachelors Walk flooded quite badly".
