All About Cork: Knocknaheeny in pictures

Here's what happened in Knocknaheeny this week:

Swim free with the family

To celebrate the European Week of Sport, Cork Sports Partnership in partnership with Leisureworld has organised free family swims in their centres in Churchfield and Bishopstown.

Each ticket is for one adult and one juvenile (six to 16 years).

The swims will take place at Leisureworld Churchfield on Monday September 23, Tuesday September 24, and Wednesday September 25 between 6pm and 7pm.

Limited family tickets are available, and pre-registration is essential – visit corksports.ie for further information.

Under 6’s do not need to be booked, but there’s a max ratio of 1:4, adult to u6.

Walk and talk at Tramore Valley

The Farranree and Churchfield/Gurranabraher walking groups are meeting on Monday, September 23, at 2pm in Tramore Valley Park for a walk and mingle, followed by a tea or coffee.

This year, as part of the National Walking Day Campaign, Cork Sports Partnership has partnered with Get Ireland Walking and Cork City Council to provide a number of free activities to celebrate both functional and recreational walking across Cork city and county throughout the week. A number of stakeholders, organisations and community groups will host events and provide opportunities for everyone to get out and about walking.

This campaign will also highlight the work of the Get Cork Walking Project and stakeholder network.

The event in Tramore Valley Park is open to everyone.

Contact Ailish at Ailish.McDonald@hse.ie to register.

For information on other events visit corksports.ie and contact Alison at achambers@corksports.ie

‘Bus service issues affecting passengers and drivers alike’

A local Cork City councillor has submitted a motion ahead of the next meeting, calling on the council to resolve the issues being experienced by bus passengers and drivers in the city.

Sinn Féin councillor for Cork City North West, Kenneth Collins, said that people are missing work and school, and that elderly people are being left in the cold and rain at bus stops, because they cannot rely on public transport.

However, he also highlighted issues regarding illegal parking and traffic chaos, as “huge contributing factors to the decline in the reliability of the bus service”.

“The need for solutions has never been stronger,” Mr Collins said.

“We know that the timetables are an issue and are completely disconnected from the reality on the ground, but illegal parking and traffic chaos are also huge contributing factors to the decline in the reliability of the bus service.

“Cork City Council must play their part in cracking down on this,” he said.

He hit out at the MacCurtain Street Public Transport Improvement Scheme.

“From what I am hearing, and from what the statistics tell us, it has completely failed to improve public transport,” Mr Collins said.

“I am calling for a full review, because we need to know the impacts and where the bottlenecks are happening.”

Mr Collins’s motion will ask Cork City Council to write to the minister for transport and the NTA, outlining that Cork City Council recognise that issues with reliability of the bus service have become worse; many of these issues are caused by increased traffic congestion and illegal parking in the city centre; people deserve reliable, efficient and accessible public transport; the great work bus drivers do to serve the people of Cork City under very difficult circumstances; that bus drivers deserve to be able to do their work without the increased pressure of constant delays in their schedules or anti-social behaviour; and that the council, the NTA, and Bus Éireann all have a role to play in ensuring the city’s public transport is reliable, efficient, accessible and safe.

The motion also looks to review the impact of the MacCurtain Street Public Transport Improvement Scheme on bus reliability; publish details on the number of parking-enforcement officers currently employed, and the number considered a full cohort; meet with An Garda Síochána and bus drivers to identify and tackle existing ‘pinch-points’ where illegal parking is causing delays to the buses; and write to the NTA, requesting an urgent review of timetables by the end of October and the credibility of delivering these timetables, given the consistent delays.

Cork City Council were contacted for comment.