Mayo County Council secures river-clearing funds
Mayo County Council will receive €200,000 in funding towards removal of river conveyance blockages and the extension of the scope and scale of the OPW’s Minor Flood Mitigation Works and Coastal Protection Scheme (the Minor Works Scheme).
This once-off allocation can be used to fund the immediate removal of blockages from locations such as river crossings, bridges or culverts, that are causing a restriction to rivers which pose an immediate risk to flooding of properties.
The funding was announced today by Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW), Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran.
Minister Dara Calleary welcomed the announcement and said: “Blockages of river conveyancing is one of the main reasons of flooding to properties, so any additional funding to tackle that is welcome. The expansion of the minor works scheme is also to be welcomed. This will allow local authorities to increase the scope of the scheme and allow for better opportunity for local authorities to address localised flood and coastal erosion risk within their administrative areas.
“We have seen time and time again the devastation that can be caused by flooding in communities, so any measures that are introduced to assist with this is very welcome.”
The OPW Minor Works Scheme has been available since 2009 and is part of the Government’s response to managing flood risk. The purpose of the demand-led Scheme is to provide funding to Local Authorities to undertake minor flood mitigation works, or studies to address localised flooding and coastal protection problems within their administrative areas.
The revisions include an increase in the upper threshold in funding for projects from €750,000 to €2m and an increase in the OPW contribution from 90% to 95% for the balance of approved funding above €300,000. Further revisions include the relaxing of some economic criteria which lowers the required threshold for viable solutions.
The OPW will be writing to the local authorities today with the details, and the supporting documentation will be available on the OPW website in the coming days.