New fire station for Clon a step closer

CONSTRUCTION work is set to begin on Clonakilty’s new fire station building shortly, with confirmation from Cork County Council that the long-awaited project is going to tender.

The new building, to be located on the western side of the town’s bypass, will replace the current cramped fire station on Kent St.

Planning was originally sought for the new station in 2018 and funding was confirmed in 2020 as part of a package with new stations in Kanturk and Macroom, but while those projects began construction soon afterwards, progress on the Clonakilty fire station stalled.

The issue was raised by local independent councillor Paul Hayes at the recent meeting of Cork County Council’s Western Division.

He said: 

“A lot of the local firefighters have been in touch with me lately. Hopefully, a contractor can be appointed in the coming weeks to allow the long-awaited project commence.”

Cork County Council’s Environment Directorate director Louis Duffy said: “We are hoping to go to tender this week seeking contractors to build the station. It’s very hard to give an absolute date based on that. We’ll just have to see what the response is.

“There was some concern for a number of months, and that did delay this issue of the tender, simply because construction inflation was unpredictable. There remains an issue around the guarantees that have been given for a sharing of the inflation risk, and we’ll just have to see exactly how that can be managed in the overall contract. The proposal at this stage is that this week will see the publication of the tender, the call for tenders from contractors.”