Council Ignores Flood Victims.
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Wednesday August 20, 2008 07:59
by Flood Victim - Killincarrig Residents
Killincarrig Cross Roads
Wicklow County Council has no flood plan and it's Fire Service is not allowed respond to flooding.
On Saturday 16th August at 3pm the Coolagad river burst its banks in Delgany Co. Wicklow. A culvert under the R761 collapsed and forced a road closure and millions of gallons of water to flow into Killincarrig village. What happened next can only be described as gross negligence by Wicklow County Council and it's Fire Service. Approxamitely 20 residents started to look for assistance from the various state agencies but were ignored. WCC had no emergency numbers in place, had no crews working on the ground, had no sandbags filled and would not allow its Fire Service to be dispatched.
Wicklow is the only County in Ireland that refuses to dispatch Fire Brigades to floods. In light of the recent history of this service and its problems in Bray you would think that the powers that be would put their budgetary problems aside and assist the taxpayers that fund this service. Dublin Fire Brigade provides a call-out service to Wicklow Fire Service from Tara St. in Dublin.
The operators of this service informed our residents that they received 250 calls from Wicklow Residents to deal with flooding. They were unable to dispatch any Wicklow based brigades because of restrictions imposed by the Chief Fire Officer of Co. Wicklow. They were also unable to give an emergency number for WCC.
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The phones lines in WCC buildings in Wicklow were automated and not programmed to deal with emergencies. The phone line in the Greystones office rang out. Members of Greystones Fire Brigade have informed us that they are not allowed respond to floods and did not receive any calls to do so on Saturday 18th August.
Met Eireann started to issue weather warnings via the media on Friday morning, these warnings were titled "Severe Weather Alert for the East Coast of Ireland - expect severe flooding" Wicklow County Council ignored this and should now be held accountable. Please lobby your local Councillors to stop this abandonment of our citizens in their time of need. Call for the resignation of the Fire Officer and the County Manager and call into question the planners of this county that continue to allow streams to be diverted into culverts.
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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8My house was flooded on Saturday. I rang 999 and was told Wicklow Fire Service does not deal with floods. I am going to inform my insurance company of this and maybe they could get re-imbursed from Wicklow County Council.
I too called the fire service, the gardai and the council. No one came, the fire service said they were not allowed. Who is responsible, who is accountable? €1000's of damage to my house could have been prevented.
Culverts all over Ireland are being created to suit development. This interferes with the natural flood plain of the river and causes back up problems and eventually the houses built near these man made diversions will suffer.
The Coldross river in Kilcoole burst it's banks causing havoc and panic to local residents. We too were left to fend for ourselves for many hours until the excellent volunteers from the civil defence arrived. No fire brigade or council employee helped the people of Kilcoole in their hour of need. Shame on them and well done the unpaid volunteers.
Dont hold your breath waiting on Wicklow County Council.
Did you 'see' what they Did'nt Do in regard to a much needed
24/7 fire service in Bray after 2 firefighters lost their lives ?
'They' done nothing except pay out large expenses to 'elected
representatives' who ought to be ashamed of their non action
yet again.....
Nicky Kelly was on the radio saying Arklow was flooded and its fire brigade was in Co. Wexford dealing with floods in Gorey. Is it a case that Wicklow fire brigades can deal with floods provided they are not in Co. Wicklow? I wonder was Wexford C.C. paying for this service. Ah it all comes down to money in Wicklow.
This is a disgrace. With County Councilors getting an average of over €30,000 in expenses per year plus their normal salary of over €93,000, they should be ashamed of themselves but obviously don't give a damn about tax payers. If they did they'd be loading up their cars with sandbags, or making sure homes were protected from flooding.
If we stopped paying tax, they'd notice what's going on very quickly but until then they will, no doubt, continue to pay lip service to their constituents.
One Wexford Councilor claimed over €80,000 in expenses last year plus his normal salary of over €93,000. No one deserves such a pay cheque in one year and certainly not someone who does nothing for it. If councilors have a constituency office they can claim €50,000 set up expenses and a further €50,000 for every year after that. If they employ a member of their family they can also claim tens of thousands of €€€ in expenses. They should stop this straight away and put that money into the public health service, the fire brigade, ambulance services, schools and infrastructure.
The Government and Co. Councils have failed us because they don't care once the fat pay cheque is lodged into their bank accounts. We have to help ourselves. Government does not care. Get together and protest throughout the year about these problems, even when they have been forgotten. It's the only way to win a little bit of freedom in this country. We may not be oppressed by the power of the gun but we are oppressed by the power of the purse and those who control it.
In light of the inadequacies of Wicklow Fire Service exposed in The Bray People newspaper (20/8/2008) senior management of this service should now resign en masse. They no longer have the confidence of their crews nor the public in general who finance them through rates and taxation. This is the same management that sent only 6 firefighters to deal with a massive factory fire, in Bray, on the 26th September last year resulting in only 4 coming home. Wicklow Fire Service is about saving money and not public safety. The management of this service are now trying to defend their high paid jobs through lies in the media. No fire appliance from Co. Wicklow was dispatched to deal with flooding on Saturday last.
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