Newcastle’s Regional Community Resilience Group (RCRG) is considering logging instances of flooding in the town in order to illustrate the seriousness of the situation to the authorities.
The group—set up to pressure the government to find a solution to serious flooding in the town—held its AGM recently and updated all the members on the work that has been done in the past year. At the meeting, the sub-committee of Sheila Maginn, Gareth Jones, and Sam Anderson said they had almost exhausted all avenues in their search to find a solution to the flooding in the town.
Yet there was clearly an appetite amongst the members who attended to continue the work, and the most popular suggestion was to carry out a survey throughout Newcastle to find out which houses have been flooded and when in recent years. The group felt a survey would provide a clearer idea of the extent of the flooding problems in the town.
Sheila said that agencies aren’t aware of every instance of flooding, but if they did, it would help the RCRG’s call for a permanent solution to the problem. It was felt that the way to carry out a survey would be to go door to door in Newcastle, or distribute it through people’s doors, or through the Mourne Observer. The majority of the group agreed they would be willing to walk door to door in Newcastle in order to find the details out.
Another suggestion to help local people in the event of flooding was to create a database of tractor owners who would be willing to be called on to come and help pump water out. RCRG sub-committee member Sam Anderson said farmers have always played a key role in helping out in the past.
In the Mourne Observer read about how the RCRG are frustrated that more has not been done to address flooding in the town.
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