Writes Leo McMahon
Additional parking is badly needed to serve the beach at Lough Beg (Luck) near Ringaskiddy, said Cllr Audrey Buckley (FF) at the monthly meeting of the county council’s Carrigaline Municipal District (MD).
Describing it as ‘a fabulous local amenity’ in Cork Harbour, she suggested all stakeholders be spoken to with regard to providing a parking area that facilitated both the two pharmaceutical companies there and the general public. Cllr Jack White (FG) seconded.
The present public parking space at the popular seaside was very small resulting in overflow parking all along the approach road (governed by double yellow lines) which was a bus route (225), especially in the summer.
In a report, MD officer Denise Kidney said: ‘The land around the access to the beach is owned and managed by the Industrial Development Authority (IDA). Any developments in this area would need to be managed and funded by the IDA’.
Cllr Buckley added that she had spoken to people from both local industries (Hovione and De Puy Synthes) there who told her they would like to see a plan in place. Along with Seamus McGrath TD (FF), she intended speaking to the IDA about it and other stakeholders and believed the council could have an input through its Corporate Social Responsibility role. In recent years, the council carried out significant path access and other improvements at Luck Strand.
Referring to the M28 Active Travel Project and Ringaskiddy Public Realm Enhancement Plan, Ms Kidney reported that Coffey Construction were well into the work that will include a shared use pedestrian/cycle route from the Port of Cork entrance to Gobby Beach car park and a new shared use path and public lighting on the north side between Martello Park and Gobby Beach plus junction improvements, raised pedestrian crossings and a gateway feature. (Work is ongoing on the Cork-Ringaskiddy M28 itself).
Fountainstown toilet
In another motion, Cllr Buckley repeated her call for funding to upgrade the public toilets at Fountainstown.
‘The excellent people’s park toilet facilities at Haulbowline near Ringaskiddy is the standard we should be looking at to input across the MD’, she added.
Ms Kidney reported that the request would be examined in detail with a view to drafting a business case to upgrade toilet facilities in Fountainstown. Senior executive officer Maurice Murphy said the Ringaskiddy toilets had formed part of a multi-million euro project but the council was looking at seeing what level of funding was required and if it could be secured for the facility at Fountainstown which he acknowledged required attention.
Line marking
Cllr Buckley asked when the road lining van and contractor would be in the MD and if councillors could draw up a list. She specifically asked for a disabled driver parking bay on the upper road of the Pier Garden, Crosshaven.
In a report, acting senior executive engineer Alan Cogan replied: ‘A tender was recently advertised for line marking services. Appointment of a contractor will occur in the next few weeks and mobilisation will happen as soon as weather conditions permit. A review of the upper road will be undertaken to determine suitability of provision of a disabled space at this location.’
Cllr Buckley said it was very frustrating that the county with the largest road network still didn’t have its own road lining van and had previously raised this issue at full council. Some areas hadn’t been re-lined for years.
There was a repeated call by Cllr Buckley on ESB Networks to remove two poles obstructing users of the footpath near The Oar Bar, Lower Road, Crosshaven. The engineer said he would again chase the matter up with the ESB because it was going on too long. He also undertook to look into the problem of for a protruding metal eir chamber cover on the footpath at Middle Road, Crosshaven.
Cllr Buckley repeated her call for the adoption of casual trading by-laws in the MD, noting that she recently saw three spaces taken up by saunas in the car park at Fountainstown.
The SEO replied that casual trading was a complex issue. Carrigaline MD was the pilot project for future by-laws and the council was anxious to get it right and ensure these worked. A licence type mechanism for services might be needed in parallel with casual trading which was about the sale of goods but everything was currently being examined. To another query from Cllr Buckley, he said there would also be a condition requiring operators dealing with their waste and producing documentary evidence of same.
On being informed the case was closed, Cllr Buckley asked for correspondence from the environmental section outlining the position regarding asbestos that had been on a site at Crosshaven.
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