Planting of rain gardens at Cork Railway Park hailed as an example to others

A city community has planted rain gardens in the city’s first learn-to-cycle track as part of a project being hailed as a model for other urban neighbourhoods.

The planting day at Railway Park on the northside on Saturday, marked the final chapter of a community-led climate project, which was supported by funding from the Community Climate Action Programme, the country’s Local Authorities Waters Programme (LAWPRO), and Cork City Council’s parks and recreation team.

Michael O’Sullivan, of the Railway Park Community Group, said: “It’s exciting to reach the planting stage and see everyone getting involved.

“This shows what’s possible when a community has a vision for its green space and works with the city council to make it happen.”

The Railway Park community is drawn from the St Luke’s, Summerhill North, O’Mahony Avenue, Wellington Road and Grattan Hill areas of the city. The group got together in 2017 to improve their local green space, through cleaning, painting, and planting.

They made a successful application to the Community Climate Action Programme for funding to create the city’s first learn-to-cycle activity track on an old Irish Rail storage space they felt could be upgraded.

Construction of the cycle track began last summer, transforming it into a safe and secure space for children to learn to ride a bike safely.

While the amenity was closed to facilitate works, the city council’s parks and recreation team added further play elements to the playground area, including an active climber unit with monkey bars, a Springer, and five play panels.

LAWPRO funding boosted the project’s environmental impact by introducing a nature-based solution to address surface water issues that could damage the cycle track.

Cork City Council installed four rain gardens around the track to “slow the flow” of surface water by retaining it in the rain gardens.

Sharon McDonnell, senior executive planner and chair of the sustainable urban drainage (SuDS) working group at Cork City Council, said: “These demonstrator projects give us an opportunity to trial and monitor new ways of working, like nature-based solutions.

“What we learn here will inform future projects and help us build climate resilience across the city.”

The Community Climate Action Programme is funded by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, and the Local Authority Waters Programme funding scheme for nature-based solutions is funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Some €860,000 has been allocated to Cork City for projects run by community, voluntary, and non-profit groups located in the local authority area to help deliver projects in areas including community energy, travel, food and waste, shopping and recycling, and local climate and environmental action.