Sinn Féin Councillor Thomas Gould walks out of City Council meeting in protest at lack of response to Blackpool flooding

Sinn Féin Councillor Thomas Gould walks out of City Council meeting in protest at lack of response to Blackpool flooding Sinn Fein Councillor Thomas Gould tonight walked out of a meeting of Cork City Council in protest at the lack of response to the recent flooding in Blackpool. Cllr. Gould said: “The OPW is sitting on a report that must still go out to tender for the design phase of the flood protection. I called for this report to be fast-tracked nine months ago. Here we now and Blackpool is flooded again and there still isn’t a credible plan in place to protect from similar disastrous events in the future.” “Last week Minister Kathleen Lynch announced that the culverts in Blackpool did not have the capacity to deal with flooding. The City Manager was asked tonight if he could confirm this information and he couldn’t do so. The only thing that the City Manager proposed to do was to monitor and maintain trash screens on the waterway up-stream from the culverts.” “No compensation will be provided to residents and business affected by the flooding. For the second time in nine months, I proposed rates waivers for those impacted and it was again rejected by the City Manager." “I asked for flood protection barriers for all the people and businesses in Blackpool that have been devastated once again. There needs to be an immediate implementation of an insurance scheme to cover people who cannot get flood insurance. If Cork City Council does help and fight for the people and businesses of Blackpool, who will?” Speaking about his decision to walk out of tonight’s meeting, Cllr.Gould said: “I couldn’t in all good conscience remain in a meeting that I felt was effectively doing absolutely nothing to address the situation in Blackpool. I wasn’t getting any credible responses to what most people would consider to be reasonable questions followings event last Thursday night. The people of Blackpool deserve much better than what went on here this evening.” For further information please contact Cllr.Thomas Gould 0873021551