City council engage with landowners on damaged quay wall

CORK City Council has said it is engaged with private landowners whose responsibility it is to repair a section of damaged quay wall in the heart of the city.

A collapse of a portion of the northern quay wall near South Gate Bridge in August marked the latest in a number of quay wall collapses along that stretch of the south channel of the River Lee.

The incident in August left a sizable hole at a section of quay wall which abuts a privately-owned car park.

A spokesperson for the city council told The Echo on Tuesday that the local authority is “engaged with the site owners to resolve this matter”.

“In accordance with Section 8 of the Derelict Sites Act 1990, before making any entry on the register in relation to any land, the local authority being Cork City Council must give to any owner and occupier notice of our intention to make such entry and shall consider any representations any owner or occupier may make in writing within such period as may be specified in the notice and may either make the entry or not as we think proper having regard to such representations,” the spokesperson continued.

The latest update follows confirmation from the local authority at a meeting in September that correspondence had been sent “to the persons responsible for the privately owned lands where the collapse took place seeking urgent engagement and advising them that it is their responsibility to maintain this area”.

“We can further confirm that we will use all the applicable statutory powers available to the council to seek to address matters relating going forward,” Adrienne Rodgers, the director of services in the council’s community, culture and placemaking directorate continued, in reply to a question submitted by Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy.

On August 27, fire crews attended the scene following a collapse of a portion of the wall to make safe the surrounding area adjacent to the bridge.

Subsequently the area was inspected by Cork City Council’s roads department and it was considered that there was no immediate danger, due to the localised collapse, for the footpaths and structure of the bridge.

Speaking to The Echo following the latest update, Mr McCarthy said he hoped that the correspondence sent to the site owners to date would be enough to prompt repair works to be carried out.

However, he expressed disappointment at the apparent lack of action by the landowners so far.

“I don’t get the sense of urgency on the landowners’ side at all and that’s very disappointing,” he said.

Mr McCarthy said he is also concerned further damage might occur if urgent repair works are not carried out.

“It has been confirmed that there’s no impact on South Gate Bridge so far but very much when you see the location of the collapsed quayside, it was right next to the bridge so it could be only a matter of time that the part of the quayside abutting the bridge collapses,” he said.

Sinn Féin councillor Mick Nugent also renewed his call for repair works to be carried out without delay.

“Given the level of public concern due to three partial collapses of the quay wall it is important that the issue is addressed as soon as possible,” he said.