CORK County Council has ruled out purchasing a drain cleaning machine because, officials said, at a cost of €600,000 or more it would be too expensive to be lying idle.

Local authority officials rejected calls for one and said it wouldn’t be used on a regular basis - and they would need several of these machinies to cover the size of the county.

Both Cllr Ger Curley (Ind Ire) and Cllr John Buckley (Ind) raised a motion calling on the council to purchase a drain cleaning machine in view of the adverse rain conditions and severe storms. 

There have been persistent flooding issues in many West Cork towns and villages including Bantry and, more recently, Union Hall.

Councillors called for a comprehensive cleaning and maintenance programme of all drains for each municipal district, pointing out that a lot of drains are not being cleared out on a regular basis.

‘Many drains are not maintained on a regular basis and I feel that the purchase of these jet machines would help with the state of the roads,’ said Cllr Curley.

Cllr Buckley said he didn’t think hiring a private contractor to clean out drain and gullies every year is cost effective and the purchase of their one machine would make strong financial sense.

Cllr Danny Collins (Ind Ire) supported the motion and said he previously called for the drains in Bantry to be cleared three or four times a year.

‘I don’t think the machines we have ourselves are clearing the drains properly and I see that outside my own bar in Bantry. If we did buy a machine we could go around the county at specific times and unblocking these drains will help a lot,’ said Cllr Collins.

Cllr Alan Coleman (Ind) pointed out that they need to increase the metal gully traps as the sizes pipes have been increased but these traps have been the same for the past 50 or 60 years.

Bandon Kinsale Municipal District manager Padraig Barrett said it is a timely motion giving the approaching winter and wetter weather.

He pointed out that the gully pots do have slit traps that will trap cigarettes and slit and pointed out at that at this time of year the average mature tree could have up to a tonne of leaves.

‘The key here is road sweeping and we have 11 mini-sweepers across the municipal districts and eight large suction sweepers, and all will be operating full-time over the winter. Each is equipped with gully cleaning capacity and suction facilities,’ he said.

However, he said one drain cleaning machine wouldn’t be enough for the size of the county but also there wouldn’t be a requirement for it to be used on a daily basis

‘It’s too an expensive a machine to have it idle and not being used on a regular basis. They cost in excess of €600,000 and it would need to be used all year round and we don’t have that requirement.’