Flood of fears that Irish Water won’t complete Bandon sewerage upgrade

IRISH Water is being urged not to leave Bandon without ‘finishing the job’, after councillors expressed serious concern that works will not be carried out in Market Quay as part of the town’s sewer upgrade.

Cllr Gillian Coughlan (FF) raised the issue at last month’s meeting of the Bandon Kinsale Municipal District and said she had concerns following the sewage flooding of gardens on New Road in the town last month.

‘I’m not pleased with Irish Water’s response that they won’t be digging up, due to the danger of existing buildings on Market Quay. Most of the buildings there are newly built so I don’t accept that,’ said Cllr Coughlan.

Cllr Coughlan said she still wants the pipes on Market Quay replaced to allow for the drain away of surface fluvial flooding and the overflow from New Road.

‘I don’t want the contractors leaving Bandon without completing the job. It hasn’t been resolved and I’m pleading that we, as a Municipal District, would use all our offices to get Irish Water to work on Market Quay before they leave.’

Cllr Coughlan added that they had no problem digging up North Main Street which looks much more volatile in relation to the buildings than Market Street does.

‘I feel they just want to finish up and get out of town. That’s not good enough and Bandon people have sacrificed too much over the last number of years not to have it future-proofed.’

Cllr Kevin Murphy (FG) said that they should try and meet with engineers from Irish Water to get it included and get a detailed account of all the project carried out.

Cllr Sean O’Donovan (FF) said it’s unacceptable from Irish Water and said they should write to them and ‘demand’ a meeting.

Senior executive engineer Charlie McCarthy said that because it’s not a Council project, he can’t tell Irish Water what to do.

Cllr Murphy asked Mr McCarthy if would he be able to put his ‘stamp’ on it as he is an engineer and contact Irish Water on this issue.

Mr McCarthy said he would be on board with this and councillors agreed to write to Irish Water on the issue.