Derry residents 'anxiously watching the weather' for fear of future flooding
Some Derry City and Strabane District residents are “anxiously watching the weather” due to worries around flooding, council members have warned.
At the recent Full Council meeting SDLP councillor Martin Reilly and UUP Alderman Darren Guy put forward a joint motion requesting that Minister for Infrastructure, Liz Kimmins, visit the council area to “hear from affected residents from flooding over the past decade, such as those in Ivy Mead and Eglinton”.
The motion added: “The Council recognises viable flood alleviation proposals are in design stage and calls for clarification from the Minister on time-scales and funding for these solutions.”
Councillor Reilly noted that while the motion only references two areas, there are “many different locations across our council area [that] have similar concerns”.
“Newtownstewart is a good example of that,” he said, adding: “Residents in Ivy Mead and Eglinton are frustrated at not knowing the time-scales for improvements, clarification on the costings for those improvements, and commitment to resources to deliver when they are out of design stage.
“Residents are anxiously watching the weather all the time. That affects their mental health, planning for their summer holidays, [and] any family occasions that they have.
“They are always worried about what the weather might bring for their home and the area that they live in.”
Alderman Guy said Ivy Mead residents had been “really put through the mill” since a flood in 2017.
“What was supposed to be a one-in-a-hundred year event has seen recent flooding, up to three or four more times, in certain parts of Ivy Mead,” he said.
“Houses put in flood defences only to find out that they were useless, that their houses flooded and retained water.
“It wouldn’t be the first time a minister visited them, because [former Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd] visited them after one of the many flooding occasions.
“He did speak to the residents and they were more than thankful for him coming along, but they felt that he just didn’t spend enough time with them.
“There’s not going to be a shouting match or anything like that. They would just like to come down, get the ear of the minister, and actually know that the minister is fully behind them and will push for this work to go through whenever this project is finished.
“Hopefully in 2026 the money can be found and it can be moved on to design and project stage.”