Parking charges in Cork city to rise; councillors approve 'extremely challenging' budget

Car-parking charges in Cork city will increase next year for the first time since 2017.
The budget was passed by a 24-7 majority of councillors.
The main contributors to the increase in expenditure are an increase in budget to homeless services of €4.5m, an increase in the Capital Advance Leasing Facility/Mortgage to Rent of €3.9 million, an increase in funding for road resurfacing of €400,000 and an increase in payroll of €4.8m.
Fianna Fáil councillor John Sheehan said the budget of nearly quarter of a billion “befits a city of Cork’s ambition”.
“I think it does a lot of very, very positive things in the city in terms of housing, in terms of development, in terms of building up our infrastructure,” he said.
However, Sinn Féin councillor Mick Nugent said while spending is up overall, there are cumulative cuts of over €1.4m.
The budget sees a reduction in spending for areas such as footpath repairs and housing maintenance works.