Flooding at Bboro Town Lake flagged

Issues with flooding at Bailieborough Town Lake could only be solved by draining the lake.

That was the verdict of area engineer Alan Lyons when the issue was brought forward by Cllr Paddy McDonald at the Bailieborough Cootehill Municipal District Meeting.

Cllr McDonald expressed concerns that the newly renovated footpath surrounding the lake had undergone issues of serious flooding in recent times.

He believes that, during its construction, a blockage was caused in one of the drainage points, which has stopped the overflow of water escaping.

Some people in the area think the flooding around the lake is “staying high”, chimed in Cllr Sarah O’Reilly.

She suggests there may be a blockage in the outlet under the road, which leads down to the school.

Both councillors suggested submerging a camera into the lake to detect the problem.

Responding, Mr Lyons said that the issue would be hard to resolve, and it would be impossible to detect the issue using a camera as its vision would be blurred under the water.

He stated the only way to resolve such an issue would be to close all outlets into the lake and drain the water out completely.

However, due to the fact that no properties are being directly affected by the issue, draining the lake was not feasible due to the high cost of the measure.

The engineer also advised that Bailieborough Town Lake is not in a designated flood plain, and was located on private property, so there was very little the council could do.