A majority vote at Lisburn and Castlereagh has signed off on a Dromara plan for homes and commerical units.
A mixed housing and commercial development has been approved despite “major concern” of future flooding.
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s planning committee signed off on the Dromara application with a majority decision on Monday August 4.
Village residents expressed concerns they would fall foul of future storm weather alluding to a lack of flood defences in the wake of recent storms.
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Local homeowner Janet Boyle said: “Every year flooding in the village is causing problems and my fear is that there is no safeguarding for the future, as our future will be more flooding. This is a high risk flooding area.
“We are all aware that there is no money for more flood defences to be put in place. Ironically we are still being saturated with developments in the village.”
The plans propose a mixed use development including 46 houses and nine units for employment close to the Rathfriland Road. Downshire East Alliance Alderman, Aaron McIntyre spoke to the chamber in support of the residents alluding to a repeated flooding and an “out of date” biodiversity survey.
He said:” Flooding is a major concern for the residents with 2017 the last time a flood alleviation scheme was put in place, but flooding issues arise year on year.
“The last biodiversity was four years ago in 2021 and is out of date. In 2022/23 there was a species of Lapwings on these lands, a protected species now not accounted for.”
Significant flooding took place in the village in January after heavy rainfall from Storm Eowyn. And just two years earlier, Storm Betty caused considerable damage to houses in Dromara with images of raw sewage entering people’s homes.
At the time LCCC agreed in chambers to generate a weather resilience group to assist residents on future floods to resolve a “decades old problem”.
The ‘Arona Developments’ application had been previously deferred in July for further engagement with the Department for Infrastructure Roads and Rivers.
The chamber heard that despite no changes to the applicant’s reports on storm water controls, the agencies had made no objections. Agent for the applicant, Brendan Starkey responded: “A full drainage report has been done to provide solutions for potential future storms, a flood alleviation scheme has been considered fully compliant.
“There are no objections from DfI with all matters robustly addressed. The development will bring much needed housing and commercial spaces to Dromara. To our knowledge there are no species identified on the site that can be harmed.”
Engineer for the applicant, Tim Cousins referred to the use of a ‘hydro-brake’ system to control flood waters with the mechanism to be adopted and maintained by NI Water. He added: “Flooding will never happen”.
However, Downshire East councillor Uel Mackin said: “There was flooding this year in January and it was said a flood defence scheme would be made, but it hasn’t.
“A lot of what has been said about the ‘hydro-brake’ has alleviated some of my fears, but I still have major concerns of flooding. We are now being told that flooding will never happen. But to me more development can only make matters worse.”
Giving his support to the plans, Castlereagh East Alliance Alderman, Martin Gregg added that his flooding concerns had been alleviated, though he raised questions over a lack of traffic calming measures around the cul-de sac development.
A vote of six in favour approved the application with four against.
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