COUNTY COUNCIL FUNDING: TWO SIDES

Councillor says €25m more needed to keep things moving

By Kieran O’Mahony

A WEST Cork councillor has bemoaned the lack of funding from central government for the county and said they only had themselves to blame. 

Cllr Joe Carroll (FF) highlighted the shortfall in funding for Cork county at last week’s meeting of the local authority and said it’s affecting services including the upkeep of both roads and towns and villages. He said the problem was accentuated by the abolition of town councils in 2014. 

Cllr Carroll complained that there are not enough staff on the ground in towns across West Cork. ‘This is some form of joke and I’m blaming ourselves as we allowed it to go too far and this county needs an extra €25m from central government,’ said Cllr Carroll.

He pointed out that there are two fine tractor lawnmowers in Skibbereen, for example, and there is no one to operate them.

‘They are being put out to hire to private operators and this is the farce that we are facing,’ said Cllr Carroll, who added that he won’t be accepting this year’s Council budget unless they get more money. ‘I can only speak for West Cork, but the standards have slipped and roads across the region have gone into disrepair since 2014.’ Cllr Kevin Murphy (FG) concurred with Cllr Carroll and said he is on record over the last number of years on the same issue. ‘There has been a number of major slippages in the care and upkeep of towns and villages and some are substantially underfunded. Also the personnel that were there before are no longer there and the care and attentions some towns got during the town council days seems to be gone,’ said Cllr Murphy. ‘They need substantial investment and if we don’t get it they will go into disrepair.’

Cllr Ben Dalton O’Sullivan (Ind) said the lack of Council funding was highlighted even when he joined the Council three years ago and nothing has improved since. County mayor Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) said they had written to all three local ministers three weeks ago to seek a meeting with them, but have yet to receive a reply.

Work on Skibbereen ‘amphitheatre’ is one of several local projects in train

BY JACKIE KEOGH

A NUMBER of amenity and public access projects throughout the West Cork Municipal District area have been successfully completed as part of an ongoing programme of works.

Councillors were informed that the recent upgrade of the outdoor gym at Schull Park has been completed with new and refurbished equipment provided along the coastal pathway.

The upgrade includes a refurbished leg press and a new wheelchair-accessible hand cycle, a new wheelchair-accessible chest press, and a refurbished leg extender, a new chin-up bar, refurbished walker and standing rotator, new rower and refurbished cross trainer, new abdominal curl and refurbished walker, refurbished shoulder wheel, and a refurbished rider and a new bicycle. 

The municipal district officer said funding for the work was provided under the Clár 2021 programme. 

In Ballydehob, spaces have been made available to accommodate campervan parking, while in Schull the pier area was resurfaced during the summer and over 14 tonnes of litter and disused fishing equipment was removed.

Works to repair the wall at Cape Clear’s South Harbour are ongoing, said the officer, and work is also being done to stabilise a road junction at the crossroads on the east side of the island. 

A major project to widen and extend the footpath from the N71 to the Garinish ferry pier over a length of approximately 160m didn’t meet with universal approval.

County mayor Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) welcomed the replacement of the Glengarriff slipway approach ramp, installation of vehicle restraint wall, and pedestrian safety railing.

But he said the construction of a viewing and seating area adjacent to the N71 means vehicles have to take ‘a big wide turn’ to go down to the pier as a result.

The councillors were told that this project, which was funded by active travel funds, Cork County Council’s special development contributions, the piers and harbours fund, amongst others, and that street furniture has yet to be added to what one councillor referred to as ‘the heli pad’.

Meanwhile, the Glengarriff Bridge to Coomerkane junction has been widened and extended over of a length of approximately 420m under the active travel funds and low cost safety scheme. 

Also, in Glengarriff, the West Cork Municipal District has upgraded the Blue Pool amenity by removing rhododendrons, as well as installing seating and railings. In addition, approximately 400m of a path out of 1600m total has been upgraded.

This work was funded by the outdoor recreation improvement scheme with matching funds from Cork County Council.

In Skibbereen, groundworks were carried out for future development of The Rock nature and heritage park.

In excess of 500m of drainage pipes were laid and 1050m of ducting pipe, in order to facilitate future public lighting. 

Preparation works for the network of footpaths throughout the site were also carried out. As part of the work, services from the newly revamped Skibbereen Town Hall to the site of the proposed amphitheatre were incorporated in the works. 

The next phase of development will include permanent fencing to the site perimeter and construction of the amphitheatre.