Port of Cork 'not trying to trick people' over planned changes to road layout

The Port of Cork Company (PoCC) has said it is not “trying to trick people” with its upcoming proposal for significant changes to road infrastructure near its Tivoli site, following a public meeting held in Glanmire on the issue.

PoCC will be applying for planning permission soon to upgrade access to and from its Tivoli Docks site to better facilitate residential development in the future, with the potential for thousands of homes there after PoCC completes its planned move to Ringaskiddy and Marino Point.

The company is set to apply for a new eastern multi-modal road, bus, and cycleway interchange infrastructure at the Glanmire Rd roundabout with the removal of the existing roundabout, as well as an upgraded access at Silversprings.

Concerns

Green Party councillor Oliver Moran and Labour Party councillor John Maher have raised concerns that the significant road infrastructure development was being applied for through a private planning application rather than through the city council or the National Transport Authority, as this requires less of a public consultation process.

The open meeting the councillors hosted in Glanmire was well attended, with more than two dozen residents attending and being informed of the plans and how to have their views heard by the councillors.

Those in attendance queried the legality of applying for significant infrastructure in this manner. They were told by councillors that though “highly unusual”, it was entirely legal for the PoCC to do so.

Some said that it seemed premature that the company was applying for more road infrastructure before any plans for housing had been made, and queried why such a significant interchange was needed for an area meant to be 70% served by public transport and active travel rather than private cars.

They also raised concerns about how the new infrastructure would affect travel times for both cars and bikes, saying that there was a huge amount of work going on in Glanmire at present which was impacting traffic.

Suggested

Some people suggested that the company was not being upfront about its motives and could not be trusted.

In attendance at the meeting was PoCC chief land development officer Henry Kingston, who told The Echo that this was not the case.

He said that the company discussed what sort of planning process would be necessary for the proposed infrastructure development with both Cork City Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland as far back as 2020 “because we knew it was going to be a junction onto a national road, and both directly guided us that because we own the site, it would be appropriate for PoCC to bring forward their own planning permission”.

Mr Kingston added: “This is the normal procedure for where a developer of a scheme interacts [with] a public road, and this is a big scheme so a big intervention to the road is needed.”

He said that though the cycle route would increase in terms of distance, much of this would be downhill so it would not be a huge addition to journey time, and that the plan is for the new infrastructure to be “sustainable transport-led”, with the proposed roads particularly large so as to accommodate multiple transport uses.

Examined

He said concerns about travel time in general would be examined by engineers and planners.

“There are specific levels of detail which will be looked at by Cork City Council engineers during the planning process.

“If there [are] tweaks to be made, we are happy to do that.”

Mr Kingston said: “There was an idea mentioned at the meeting that the Port of Cork is trying to trick people into creating a huge junction to put loads of trucks on, or that there’s no housing and this is an underhand play.

“To be very clear, there are development sites all over Cork city and county which cannot be brought forward for development because of a lack of infrastructure, so we are trying to tackle that problem and resolve the infrastructure up front.

“This is what responsible and logical development looks like.”

Public transport

He said that the site already has plans for increased public transport connectivity, and is flat land with water and power.

“The one element it is missing is access.”

Mr Kingston added that PoCC had a lot of experience with large-scale infrastructure projects “so we understand that it takes a long time”, hence enabling the site early rather than seeking permission for a large-scale housing development, only for it to be refused because of insufficient road access.

Plans for thousands of houses are mentioned in the Cork City Development Plan and in PoCC’s masterplan, but “we have intentionally left all of those references out of this plan, so that we don’t build anticipation for housing until we know the site can be enabled”, said Mr Kingston.

“Of course, there’s 5,000 potential residents who can benefit from this, but we don’t want to raise undue expectation.

“These infrastructure plans are a genuine effort to see if we can enable this site, and if we can’t then we carry on with port activity there, which would be a massive missed opportunity for Cork.”

Once the company’s plans are submitted, people will be able to make a submission at a cost of €20 through the city council’s planning website, similar to other private planning applications.