In a headline article in last weeks Dundalk Leader, a proposal to raise the existing dyke by a further three metres from the Soldiers Point area to Blackrock was described. This proposal centres around the Rockview Farm and the idea is to create a large area protected from flooding that can be developed for housing, amentites, commercial development etc. According to the piece, "...the developers of Rockview Farm, a 200-acre site rezoned in 2003 may find it possible to convince Dundalk Councillors that the added protection provided to the townby a proposed upgrade to the embankment makes the plan worthwhile."
This proposal is just the latest in a series of efforts to get permission to develop this area. In 1994 an application was made to put a golf course and housing in the area. Earlier an application was made for a a business park and associated amenities. Both these and other applicaiton to develope the low-lying flood plain were refused by the County Council for the very good reason that the whole area regularly floods.
The proposal to increase the height of the dyke by 3 metres may protect the immediate area but as with many coastal developments, there is an inevitable knock-on effect: unless the dyke were to stretch all the way up the Castletown river the dyke would only move the flood plain into the centre of Dundalk!
The current thinking on such flood plains is that they should not be developed but rather left to absorb the impact of flooding events. In the south of England and in Holland, where flooding is a major problem, the current thinking is to retreat from the coast in an approach called "managed retreat". Furthermore, sea levels have been slowly rising for more than 100 years now, and with global warming, are likely to rise even further with flood events becoming more common, making the proposition to erect this dyke even less likely to be approved.
