DfI is urged to dredge Quoile as part of flooding measures

DfI is urged to dredge Quoile as part of flooding measures

3 September 2025

THE Downpatrick and County Down Railway has urged the Department for Infrastructure to include dredging of the Quoile River in its plans to prevent future flooding in the town.

The railway has warned that parts of the river are blocked by silt and reeds.

The Department’s feasibility report, published in June, concluded that dredging the Quoile River would have “no impact” on flood risk.

The November 2023 floods caused widespread damage across Downpatrick, with more than 80 businesses, homes and community facilities affected, while the railway was forced to close as a result of extensive damage to its workshop and museum.

Railway chairman Robert Gardiner said: “Nobody is pretending dredging alone will prevent flooding.

“But the study only looked at peak water levels during a single, long-duration storm, and used an unrealistic dredging design that bore little resemblance to what would actually need to be done.

“It completely ignores dredging’s real benefits in speeding up drainage, reducing backwater along tributaries, and helping the town recover more quickly after floods.

“To insist that dredging has no impact at all is simply not borne out by the evidence – it is a conclusion created by narrowing the scope of the study.”

The railway’s response comes off the back of officials from DfI’s Rivers Directorate providing members of the Downpatrick Regeneration Group with an update on long-term capital interventions and operational measures.

Mr Gardiner says it was “disappointing” that the railway was not invited to the meeting last month.

He pointed to what he described as the “now critical deterioration” of the Quoile at the railway bridge.

He said the Plank Drain was now completely blocked from entering the river by silt and reeds, forcing water back into the town, and that the Quoile itself was choked over two thirds of its width.

“This is not only reducing drainage capacity, but also altering water flows around the bridge,” he said.

Mr Gardiner asked whether the Department’s feasibility study carried out any hydraulic analysis of the impact of silt and changed flow patterns on the structure, noting that if this has not been done it represented a “major gap” in the assessment.

He said the Department also risked alienating the Downpatrick community by describing calls for dredging as “misconceptions”.

He continued: “This language is both inaccurate and could be viewed as condescending.

“The people of Downpatrick have lived with this river for generations. We have seen the deterioration with our own eyes over the past 30 years.

“We have seen the channel narrow and become shallower, reeds invade the banks, and algae blooms spread in the lagoons. The condition of the river is an embarrassment to the area.

 “What we are asking for is not some miracle cure to vastly increase water capacity, but basic watercourse maintenance that removes blockages and constrictions so water can escape more quickly during high flows, and to improve the health of the river.

“To dismiss those concerns as a misunderstanding is to dismiss the evidence on the ground, as highlighted by campaigners such as the River Quoile Trust.”

The railway claims the deeper problem lies in what it describes as the “outdated remit” of the Rivers Agency, which has “historically focused solely on agricultural drainage and not the environmental and ecology health of our waterways”.

Mr Gardiner said: “The November 2023 flood exposed how inadequate that remit perhaps now is.

“Rivers must be managed not just to drain fields, but to protect towns, businesses, the environment and ecosystems. Perhaps it is time for this remit to be modernised for the 21st century.”

Mr Gardiner said the railway supported the longer-term proposals, but that routine watercourse maintenance must not be ruled out prematurely.

“We’re not saying dredging will stop the next heavy rain event, of course it won’t,” he remarked.

“But it deserves a proper and honest assessment – not to be written off on the basis of an incomplete study or as ‘misconception’ as to what people are actually asking for – and that’s to help address the constriction evident at key points along the river.”