Cork County Council considering licensing system  for saunas at local beaches  

Consideration is being given to establishing a licensing system for saunas operating adjacent to local beaches, elected members attending this week’s meeting of Cork County Council’s Carrigaline Municipal District were informed.

The question had been raised by Fianna Fáil councillor, Audrey Buckley, who said that she had expected draft bylaws to be before the body at Monday’s meeting.

Ms Buckley referred to photographs and correspondence she had received of three saunas in the car park at Fountainstown beach.

“This has to be addressed,” she said, asking if the draft bylaws could be put before council so that ‘we could get things moving’.

Bylaws

Council official Maurice Murphy told the meeting that the proposed casual trading bylaws would deal specifically with the sale of goods.

“We’re also examining at the moment another a potentially licensing type mechanism to deal with the sauna issue,” he said.

“That’s the delay, unfortunately, is looking at the parallel proposals at the moment, we’d be hopeful that we’d have something for members in a month or so,” he said, adding that the proposals would have to be considered by council management.

“We need these to work, we don’t want to get caught in a situation whereby we put them out, we’ve got a lot of advice, a lot of good advice, and I hope we get that. We’ll have a cohesive approach right across the board for both goods and services in relation to casual trading.”

Summer

Ms Buckley asked if the regulations would be in place by the summer.

“That’s the plan — what delayed it was the actual services aspect — some other authorities have actually tried to regulate sauna operation through the casual trading bylaws, our advice is that’s subject to legal challenge,” said Mr Murphy.

“The objective would be to have them in before the summer.”

Ms Buckley suggested that litter was also an issue and that enforcement officers would check that vans would have their own bin.

“Litter is a huge issue,” she said.

Mr Murphy said that part of the conditions for issuing a license to an operator that they could demonstrate they could deal with the rubbish they generate and said operators would have to produce documentary evidence to this effect.