The closure of Ashe Quay in Fermoy for three weeks in early June will be aa disaster for me and other businesses’, a shocked Kieran Barry, manager of the Community Youth Centre said this week. “This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” he added.

The contractor for the flood protection works, Lagan Construction, ran into difficulty recently while piling along the quay and must now follow a redesigned plan to complete the work there, necessitating the road closure at Ashe Quay and consequent loss of parking. There will be pedestrian access.

Lagan spokesman, Cian O’Sullivan confirmed that to be the case saying that, despite having carried out a site investigation prior to the works being started, unforseen ground conditions meant their piling works weren’t successful.

Explaining the situation on Tuesday afternoon to members of the Fermoy electoral area committee of the county council, engineer Brendan O’Gorman said that when the contractor began putting in the sheet piling they found it was sinking into mud and not rock as they expected from their site investigation.

“It’s the nature of working close to the river, conditions change,” he advised. The works are now expected to take a further three months.

Councillor Noel McCarthy said he was disappointed to hear the news as people expected Ashe Quay would be finished soon. The road closure will be very hard on businesses along the quay, he pointed out, mentioning the community centre in particular. The engineer agreed, saying the loss of parking will be a big issue. Consultation with members of the affected businesses and residents will have to be undertaken again, he said.

Works in front of The Grand Hotel and nightclub will be carried out from the river.

“We will never recover financially from this. We haven’t been making any money since the works began,” Kieran Barry said. He’s been ‘very disappointed’ with how the works were managed up to now and this could be the final straw. He revealed that he’d assigned some of his own staff to manage car parking under the difficult conditions that already exist when events were on at the centre.

With a full range of activities planned for the summer, including summer camps for children and schools’ shows, the loss of parking will be devastating, he said. He is particularly worried about access for the many senior citizens who attend activities and events at the centre and who will now have to park elsewhere and walk up from Pearse Square. “Things are hard enough without this. I’m very, very disappointed. We’ve worked hard to fill our programme for the summer and now it’ll be disrupted,” Kieran Barry said. He added that he was also very disappointed about the manner in which he’d heard the news.

“We were’t told, there was no prior consultation about it.” In a briefing document to members of the Fermoy local area committee of the county council, Lagan had mentioned their intention to liaise with the emergency services who will have to have access, the community centre, rowing club and other businesses and residents.

At the monthly meeting of Fermoy Town Council on Tuesday evening, Cllr McCarthy asked for a report on the matter to be sought from the OPW and Lagan Construction.

Speaking afterwards, Cllr McCarthy said that any explanation given to date was ‘totally unsatisfactory’. And, he stressed that any response from the OPW and contractor should include details of how businesses affected by the closure of Ashe Quay are to be compensated.

Cllr Tadhg O’Donovan said, as someone who was a strong advocate of the flood relief scheme from the very outset, he had to acknowledge there is a deep breach of trust as far as the people of Fermoy are concerned in relation to the works.

“Any information being released in the future as to works proposed to be carried out will be taken with a grain of salt by the vast majority of people in the community. I’m conscious of the goodwill that has been shown by the community and the sacrifices made, because of the understanding of the benefits that would have derived from the scheme. But now all that goodwill has been thrown back in our faces as a community,” he stated.

Cllr Frank O’Flynn is calling on the OPW and Lagan Construction to meet with local residents and business owners, as well as the management of the youth centre, as soon as possible, to discuss the Ashe Quay works and road closure.