Local elections 2024: North West ward growing in size and challenges

CORK City North West is a huge ward, covering approximately half of the Cork North Central Dáil constituency, and it may well be the frontier for the city’s future growth.

Heading north from the Opera House into Blackpool, and up to Dublin Hill, the ward extends across into Killeens, and Blarney, out as far as Tower, over to Inniscarra and back along the Lee Road into Sunday’s Well, and then down to the Christy Ring Bridge.

It embraces parts of Blackpool, Farranree, Gurranabraher, Churchfield, Blarney Street, Shandon, Knocknaheeny, Shanakiel, and Hollyhill among other areas. The ward covers a vast area, one which seems likely to face significant growth and development in the years ahead.

All six of Cork City North West’s sitting councillors have confirmed to The Echo that they will be contesting the upcoming local elections in June, and the next council will almost certainly face decisions which will see the ward become a key part of the city’s future expansion.

There have been two changes to the roster of councillors since the 2019 local elections, with two members replaced for different reasons.

After 11 years as a councillor, Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould was elected to the Dáil in the 2020 general election, and Mick Nugent — who had run unsuccessfully in the North East ward in 2019 after a term representing Cork North West — took his place. Fiona Ryan of Solidarity/People Before Profit stood down last June, citing health issues and family commitments, after seven years in the council. Ms Ryan was replaced by the Socialist Party’s Brian McCarthy.

Both co-opted councillors told The Echo they will run in June, as have the remaining councillors — Fianna Fáil’s Tony Fitzgerald and Dr John Sheehan, Fine Gael’s Damian Boylan, and Sinn Féin’s Kenneth Collins.

Challenge

Cork City North West absorbed a lot of ground in the 2019 boundary extension, and John Sheehan says it has been something of a challenge to make places like Blarney, Tower, and Cloghroe, feel like they belonged in the expanded city.

“I think that has worked reasonably well, and I think people, by and large, are happy to be part of the city. I think the next challenge in the new council, with the growth of the city, I think a lot of that growth is going to come this side of the city, because if you look at the other side of the city, you have to go out miles really,” he says.

“In this side of the city, there is less growth historically, and I think some of that growth will be coming out here and that will probably be one of the big things that will happen in the next council.”

His Fianna Fáil colleague, Tony Fitzgerald, agrees. “The north-west is the new city, and that new city will have the opportunities for development, and retail trade, and economic development in and around the Killeens, Blarney, Tower areas, and infrastructure will be key to the development and the success of these important components of the city.”

Fine Gael’s Damian Boylan, who lives in Blarney, sounds a note of caution, however.

“The north-west has been targeted by Cork City Council as an area for expansion, so we’re going to see a lot of housing built in the ward.

“Now, that’s fine, and if they want houses built in places like Kerry Pike and Cloghroe and Tower and Blarney, the infrastructure has to be put in place in tandem with the houses, otherwise we’re going to face people who are going to turn around and say, ‘D’you knew what, no, we’re objecting’.”

Sinn Féin councillor Mick Nugent lists priorities as affordable housing across the ward, a primary healthcare centre for Blarney, and regeneration.

“We have the ongoing regeneration of the city’s north-west, with Knocknaheeny at the core of it. Hopefully, we will see a speedier delivery of that over the next five years. 

“We’re seeing some progress on the delivery of a north-west regional park, with the council saying it’s a key objective, and it will be a fantastic amenity when it is complete. Regeneration has to be more than just bricks and mortar,” Mr Nugent says. “The council needs to focus as well on the regeneration of Blackpool, which is something I think really deserves that focus.”

Housing

Brian McCarthy, Socialist Party councillor, feels the headline issues for the ward in the next council will be housing, housing maintenance, water quality, and the lack of services in the area.

“The main one is housing. We can see the problems we have with overcrowding, dereliction and vacancy across the ward,” he says.

“If we look at the [Cork Northwest Quarter Regeneration] project, it has been, overall, very positive, but we have some glaring issues there, like for example 2C, which has been left half-built for years.”

Work started on phase 2C of the project in March 17, 2020, but was stalled due to “a complex contractual dispute”. However, as recently as last week, it turned a corner.

Cork City Council said it had “concluded its contractual arrangements with the initial building contractor”. It said its housing delivery and regeneration team would “immediately re-set the project”, with the intention of delivering quality homes on the site in what it said would be a timely manner.

Public transport is, as always, a pressing issue in the ward. “The outcome of BusConnects will be of interest to many in the north-west of the city, and roads and maintenance are also very topical,” Tony Fitzgerald says.

“We still need to put pressure to develop the northern distributor road and the northern ring road, because the connectivity to Ballincollig and the western parts of the suburbs is key, and that will be a major challenge for the members of the next council.”

Public transport

Damian Boylan says the council needs “to get [its] act together” on public transport infrastructure.

“We need our northern ring road and our northern distributor road, because places like Kerry Pike and Tower and Cloghroe and Clogheen are turning into rat runs.

“Cars aren’t going to disappear in the short term, with the best will in the world, in as much as [transport minister and Green Party leader] Eamon Ryan might like to think that, and they certainly won’t disappear while we have inadequate public transport,” he says.

The quality of drinking water has been a very controversial issue in this ward, and in others, since reports of brown water multiplied dramatically in the months since July, 2022, when the then Irish Water opened its new water treatment plant.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work on that, we’ve had a public meeting, we’ve had a protest, and we’re doing work door-to-door at the moment, talking to people again about moving that forward, because public pressure will be key to that,” Brian McCarthy says.

A lack of services is a huge issue, he adds, citing the closure of the Before 5 preschool as “symptomatic of how badly working class communities have been let down by the Government parties”.

“That was a real focal centre of the community, provided a lot of services beyond the pre-school, there’s been a hole punched in the local area with all those services gone, and we have no clear idea when they’re going to be brought back,” he adds.

Sinn Féin’s Kenneth Collins agrees that greater investment in the ward is needed.

“It’s a fantastic area, the north-west of the city, and I was born and reared here. I think obviously way more resources are needed here, especially public parks and amenities, such as the new community building over in Fairhill, more resources need to be put in for the people in the north-west of the city.”