A conservation group in Downpatrick has said it would be better to spend money on flood defences rather than “waste £40m” on building a gondola in the Mourne Mountains.
It follows days of devastating floods in Downpatrick and Newry, where business owners could only watch as their premises filled with water.
Stephen O’Hare from the Clean the Quoile group has said that putting off investment in flood defences in favour of projects like the gondola would be disastrous.
During the summer, SDLP and Sinn Féin councillors on Newry Mourne and Down district council voted in favour of further consultation with the controversial plan to build the £40m gondola that would ferry visitors in Newcastle up to an observation building in the Mournes.
If passed, £30m of the funding would be supplied in a use it or lose it offer through the Belfast Region City Deal, with the rest from the council.
Read more:
Chris Heaton-Harris pledges ‘support where possible' for flood-hit communities
Downpatrick railway attraction and town centre swamped by flood water
Councillors vote to slow plans for Mourne 'gondola'
It is not possible to redirect the City Deal money towards flood defences, but south Down MLA Patrick Brown said that the pot of council money would be better used to support businesses affected by the flooding.
In addition, he said that unless Stormont departments like the Department for Infrastructure act quickly, another extreme weather event this winter could easily produce another round of damaging floods.
Speaking to the Irish News, Mr O’Hare said: “The Quoile flooded because basically there’s nowhere for the water to go.
“The river levels are just returning to their previous levels now, so if something isn’t done it’s going to happen again.”
He said the Quoile had been created by digging a network of drains, which he said needed to be upgraded and with more pumping stations.
In addition, he called for a major programme of river dredging to reduce the amount of “toxic” sediment building up on river beds that damages the environment and reduces the river’s capacity.
“Local anglers have been calling for that for decades. It will take a long time to get it sorted.”
He also said that a barrier at the bottom of Strangford Lough, around five miles north of Downpatrick, that is supposed to prevent the tide overwhelming the river was no longer fit for purpose.
“It just needs money being put into it, but it’s not massive money in the greater scheme of things.
"Newry Mourne and Down district council are talking about spending about £40m on a gondola for Newcastle, but a fraction of that in our town would stop this from happening again.”
Mr Brown said that while flood defences were the responsibility of the Department for Infrastructure, he agreed there were better ways to spend council money such as a recovery fund for economic development.
“In terms of the council contribution being made to projects like Newry Civic Centre, which will be £30m plus of ratepayer money or £14m for the gondola, then absolutely we should look at reprofiling that money,” he said.
He referenced that a previous investment of around £17m in Newcastle in 2020 had been successful in reducing flooding.
With his own constituency office affected, he said local businesses in Downpatrick remained “absolutely devastated” and could face closure until the Spring.
“There’s restaurants where it’s not safe to go into because of the contamination from the oil and sewage,” he said.
“My own office flooded and the smell is unbearable to stand in and we only got a small touch of it really.”
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin’s south Down MP Chris Hazzard called on the British government to create an easily accessible relief scheme for families and businesses affected by the flooding.
A Department for Infrastructure spokesperson said that existing flood defenses provided by the department had worked effectively in "protecting hundreds of properties in Newry, Newcastle and other towns across Northern Ireland".
The spokesperson added that work was underway to progress phases two and three of the Newry flood alleviation scheme, that "we remain dedicated to finding the best solutions to address this complex and challenging issue of flooding."
A flood study will also be commissioned for Downpatrick to determine if there are any viable works which can be taken forward.
“Without effective flood risk management infrastructure and the efforts of staff from the Department and our multi-agency colleagues many more properties would have flooded," they said.
"However, on occasions, despite all of the best efforts of the multi-agency response teams, intense heavy rainfall can overwhelm drainage systems."
During 2021/22, they added that the Department's Rivers Directorate spent around £18.7m in capital funding to progress flood risk management projects, which increased to £22.7m in 2022/23.
"However, an annual investment of at least £30m capital is now needed to put in place the delivery teams and infrastructure to manage flood risk from rivers and the sea as much as possible."
A resource budget of £8m, compared to an annual spend of just under £3m in 2021/22 and 2022/23, is also needed for maintenance of existing flood risk management infrastructure.
"Unfortunately, this level of funding is not available within the Department’s current budget allocation, when balanced against the need to deliver other essential public services.”
