Cork City Council annual budget for footpath repair works 'not remotely enough' 

Uneven footpaths and a lack of dropped kerbs make many parts of Cork city “no-go areas” for people with disabilities, it has been stated.

However, Cork City Council defended its maintenance and repair of footpaths in the city, citing historical constraints within the city itself and an active response to concerns.

It was recently revealed that €200,000 a year is typically assigned for footpath repair works in Cork City Council’s annual budget.

'Not remotely enough'

Speaking to The Echo, a Cork-based engineer said this amount of money is “not remotely enough” to spend on repairing Cork footpaths on an annual basis.

Éabha Wall, aged 28, lives in the Innishannon area. Ms Wall is an ambulatory wheelchair user, which means that while she can sometimes walk without support, she often uses a wheelchair or other assistive devices, such as a cane, to get around.

“I use my wheelchair maybe 30% of the time,” she said. “However, lack of accessibility in Cork city is a barrier to many chair users.

“For this reason, I am more inclined to rely on a crutch or cane when I am unfamiliar with an area.”

“A lack of dropped kerbs and uneven footpath paving make many parts of the city no-go areas for disabled people,”

she added.

'Particularly poor'

When asked to point out some of the poorer areas of Cork city in terms of footpath issues for wheelchair users, Ms Wall replied: “Unfortunately, too many spring to mind. Some areas are worse, but no area is easy.

“The Lough and its surrounding areas are particularly poor,” she added.

“Broken pavements and uneven footpaths make the area almost impossible for someone with limited mobility to navigate.

“Footpath quality is also incredibly frustrating around Douglas Street,” Ms Wall continued.

“Often you will see a dropped kerb on one side of the road only. The nearest one on the opposite side could be 200m up the road.

“This often results in wheelchair users remaining on the road for an extended length of time — a very dangerous position to be placed in.”

Ms Wall explained further that poor footpath conditions are placing many people with reduced mobility and those who use wheelchairs in “physical danger”.

“Some of the scenarios outlined previously result in many disabled people becoming shut out of Cork city centre entirely,” she said.

“If you are not certain that an area or establishment is accessible, you are more inclined to stay at home rather than risk exposure to an unsafe environment.

“This has a huge knock-on impact — if disabled people cannot access public spaces, they cannot participate in society.

“This is not just a disability issue, we all benefit from a city made easier to navigate. Uneven footpaths create hazardous environments for disabled people, families with buggies and the elderly to name a few.”

Engage

Ms Wall called on Cork City Council to engage with disabled people in a meaningful capacity in a bid to address footpath and accessibility concerns in the city.

“There are plenty of DPOs [Disabled Person Organisation] out there with expertise and solutions,” she said.

“The council needs to pull together a group of those directly impacted by the danger imposed by this inaccessibility, if they are serious about tackling the issue.” 

A spokesperson for Cork City Council said the local authority is responsible for the maintenance of the around 2,000km of public footpaths in the city.

He added that footpaths in the city are made up of very different materials, including granite blocks, paving slabs, concrete, and tar paths, of very different ages, with the public infrastructure in some parts of the city dating back over 100 years.

“The city itself has often been described as a bowl, with the city centre business district rising up steeply on the north side of the city with more distant hill on the south side,” the spokesperson stated further.

“This significant topography poses unique challenges when compared to flat cities like Dublin.

“Cork City Council also has a current record of footpath defects,” he added.

“This database is gathered from numerous sources, including representations from councillors, the public through our Customer Relations Management [CRM] system, and our own engineering assessments.

“This data is used to inform our annual footpath programme of works.”

Funding

All funding for footpath maintenance and repairs comes from the city council’s own resources, as allocated by members through the annual budget process.

There are a number of types of footpath interventions which take place annually, the spokesperson explained, citing footpath upgrades, footpath replacements, and footpath repairs.

“Footpath upgrade usually takes place as part of a larger multifaceted public realm or transport improvement project,” he said.

“Over the past 20 years there have been many examples of such large-scale capital projects being delivered across Cork city, eg Patrick St, Grand Parade etc.

“In more recent years significant public investment has been made in active travel projects which have led to massive footpath improvements, eg MacCurtain St, Ballinglanna Active Travel Scheme, Knapps Square Cycling/Pedestrian Scheme, etc.

Projects planned

“Further large-scale capital projects are planned and will be delivered over the next two to five years, which will also have a very significant benefit to the public footpaths in the city, eg The Beamish & Crawford Quarter Project,” the spokesperson added.

“The National Transport Authority [NTA] has also provided very significant funding over the past four years to improve existing pedestrian crossing infrastructure and install new pedestrian crossing sites, as well as delivering significant pedestrian safety improvements, public lighting interventions, and new pedestrian Rapid Deployment Active Travel Measures which deliver improved pedestrian connectivity across the city.

“It is clear from the examples given above that very significant monies, in fact tens of millions of euro, have been invested in Cork footpath upgrade projects via these capital projects in the past number of years.”

The spokesperson stated further that Cork City Council also tenders a footpath replacement contract annually.

“The purpose of this tender is to target specific identified localised issues with footpaths across the city.

“This tender removes and completely replaces a section of footpath which is beyond repair.

“Usually the section or footpath replaced ranges from two to 10 metres in length.

“The locations chosen for inclusion in the annual footpath renewal contract are based on the database of footpath defects described above.

“We are confident that this results in the worst-condition footpaths, at a given time, being repaired first. The value of this annual contract is €200,000,” he added.