LOCAL CORK CITY business owners, celebrities, authors, archaeologists and others have joined together in order to protest against controversial flood relief plans for the River Lee.

The Save Cork City campaign is opposed to plans by Office of Public Works to build flood defences along the River Lee downstream of Inniscarra dam and through Cork city.

The Lower Lee (Cork City) Flood Relief Scheme aims to combat the devastating floods that Cork city has been historically prone to.

However, locals say that the so-called “Lee wall” will have a severe negative impact on the Environment, cultural heritage and economy of the city.

Campaigners says that the plan will “turn the city into a building site for up to 10 years during the construction works, affecting trade and tourism in the city”.

The loss of and damage to huge amounts of the historic environment will stunt tourism and investment in the longer term.

A widespread social media campaign has also been orchestrated, with notable faces of Cork city being photographed with a “Love the Lee” badge.

Award winning playwright Enda Walsh loves Cork & says OPW plans will destroy the city & wants a bttr solution for flood relief #humansofcork pic.twitter.com/w6lkdIcMeK — Save Cork City (@savecorkcity) April 10, 2017 Source: Save Cork City /Twitter

Among the group are architects and planners who are concerned that the plans will not be effective.

Concerned parties had until last Friday to lodge their comments with the OPW over the planned flood relief project.

A spokesperson for the OPW told TheJournal.ie that now that the window for submissions had ended, it would be going over all the observations.

The OPW said a “substantial number of observations” had been submitted.

It said that once all the submissions had been considered, it would:

Consider how best to move forward with the process.

It said that whatever the outcome of the submissions, a detailed plan on how to progress will be drawn up with a view to submitting the scheme for confirmation to Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform towards the end of the year.