Belfast at 'massive risk' of flooding according to city council officials

A Belfast City Council official made the claim after the DUP asked for a full breakdown on all spending on climate programmes at City Hall.

A row broke out at the council’s recent meeting of its Climate and City Resilience Committee between DUP Alderman Dean McCullough and representatives of several other parties.

During an update on external funding for climate projects, Alderman McCullough asked for “an overall figure or best estimate in terms of what the council has spent on climate and net zero related work.”

He said: “I am content to work with officers on how far back we go. I know there has been some debate in terms of what net zero will cost to Belfast City Council. I want to get the council cost and the external funding cost.

“I want to see we have spent X, and what the reduction of emissions is, as Y. So we are getting a figure, and how that measures against the outcome of specific targets.”

A council officer said: “Regarding the funding and the budget question. Since our team was established it has been roughly £860,000 has been allocated through the programme budget, but we haven’t spent that. In the early years we weren’t actually utilising it.

“This summer was the hottest summer on record because of El Nineo.

“As we move into the Autumn, we are going to get more and more intense rainfall, more windy conditions, more hail.

"Future projections show four times the number of extreme rainfall events, and sea level rises between 40 and 100 centimetres.”

She concluded: “This city is at a massive risk of flooding. It is not if, it is when that happens. And it is not just the responsibility of the council to address that. But what we can do as a council is convene the right actors.”

She agreed the real cost was “not doing anything” and said the focus should not be on net zero but rather “resilience and adaptation.”

A number of councillors responded to Alderman McCullough’s line of enquiry.

Alliance Councillor Tara Brooks said: “I want to thank our climate team for making a tiny budget go very, very far, and applying very successfully for outside funding. The fact we have managed to get these big EU grants is really exceptional.

“The cost of not doing anything is going to far outweigh the cost of doing something.”

Green Party Councillor Áine Groogan told the chamber: “Climate related activity goes into everything this council does, like Belfast Bikes, so to ask for complete costs is a bit of a strange request.”

She said: “It isn’t through good will that some have taken notice of climate change, it is because of the insurance industry. Governments are taking note because people can’t afford to insure their homes anymore because of the risk from the climate, from flooding and things like that.

“We have no option if we want a planet to live on. I find some people’s obsessions bizarre, when they don’t know what they are talking about. There is climate training required, and some of us need it more than others.”

People Before Profit Councillor Michael Collins told the council: “It is an argument put out by DUP Ministers, that the reason we have potholes is that we are spending too much on climate.

“We have fossil fuel companies making record profits, and the DUP aren’t raising a finger to say we tax them more. The DUP are trying to scaremonger about what this costs because they don’t actually do anything to address systemic inequality.”

Alderman McCullough said: “I am not trying to rehash the net zero debate, nor am I trying to ask members to agree with my position. You can attack me personally or my party, and I didn’t say any of these things.

“People are fixated on why I am asking for a breakdown on costs for climate, it is responsible to ask what we are spending it on and how it marries with targets.”