TOWN COUNCIL HAS NOT CONTACTED MINISTER ON WEIR ISSUE
Minister Conor Lenihan has not received any notification from Fermoy Town Council that work on the weir will not begin this year. In a statement from the department a spokesperson said that as far as they were concerned work on the weir was to begin this year as part of the deadline set by the Minister.
“I wish to confirm that the minister has not received a formal timetable of works from the town council and neither the department nor the IFI (Inland Fisheries Ireland) have been informed of any intention not to begin works in 2010,” a spokesperson told The Avondhu.
Fermoy Rowing Club secretary Donal O’Keeffe is disappointed at the lack of urgency shown by the town council concerning the repair of the weir.
“It strikes me that Fermoy Town Council is taking a big gamble here. The clock has been allowed to run out on Minister Lenihan’s deadline and the future of the River Blackwater has been placed in the hands of the fisheries board, the very body whose stated intent is the removal of the weir. We would ask that the council make available to the public the plans being currently hatched between them and the fisheries board.
"From the rowing club’s perspective our primary concerns are safety and water depth. So long as water levels and flows remain unchanged on the western side of the bridge then our main worries will have been addressed. However, as townspeople, we would still have concerns about the aesthetic and historic aspects of the weir,” Mr O’Keeffe said.
“I was unaware that the Minister had not been contacted by management at the town council and I will want to know why this has not happened,” Cllr Noel McCarthy told The Avondhu.
“The weir does not belong to the Minister but to Fermoy Town Council. We sent the minister a letter outlining that a plan for work on the weir would be forthcoming and his department acknowledged this letter,” Cllr Tadhg O’Donovan told The Avondhu.
Published:
Thursday 29th July 6:56pm
