Flood relief work that is needed to ensure that Crossmolina does not face the same fate as it did last winter could be years off, according to some local councillors, following a presentation of potential solutions to the issue. Last Friday the OPW presented a number of options to help stop the flooding from the Deel which saw the town submerged earlier this year, but it could be several years before effective measures are completed.
Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Loftus speaking at the April meeting of Mayo County Council said: "We had a meeting last Friday with the OPW, where we had a presentation done in Crossmolina of proposals for a flood relief scheme that will be done by the OPW, and can I say that one of the most frustrating parts of the whole presentation was the time frame. This has been going on and on and on, we have committee that doesn't meet for six or seven years since the last flooding in 2009, now as a council I'm looking for you to come back and decrease the time frame for what is being proposed, because next November and December, or even before that, we're going to have problems and the people of the town of Crossmolina are going to have no insurance. You've all seen the pictures and what has happened, but now is this is going to mean there's another three to four years of a delay? What we are looking to do is to press this forward an awful lot quicker and we're asking for your support."
Independent councillor Gerry Ginty added: "Having looked at the plan and the preferred option, I don't believe in all honesty that you will see that in place in the next 10 years, it's going through a lot of people's land and it will divide a lot of people's land and I can see huge objections to it, a lot of people won't want it, while a lot of people will want it when it doesn't affect them. When it's not affecting your land you take a different view of it, but even with everything going right I can't see anything happening for up to seven years. I can't understand to the world, why the OPW doesn't do something to remove the obstructions in the Deel River, there are trees growing where they never grew, there are artifical islands in a lot of waterways, caused by a tree left lying there and everything gathering around it."
