Hopes high that Cork town will get long-awaited community centre  

A Cork city councillor has expressed confidence that Ballincollig will get its long-awaited multi-purpose community centre, but has conceded it likely won’t happen by the end of this decade.

In 2018, Cork County Council gave a commitment in principle to offer lands for the development of a multi-purpose community centre in Ballincollig, but the town was subsequently absorbed into the city at the 2019 boundary extension.

At last week’s city council meeting, Gary O’Brien, Fine Gael councillor for the south-west ward, asked chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan whether she intends to honour that agreement.

In response, he was told that the council’s community and sports team has been working with Ballincollig Community Forum for a number of years to support the development of such a centre.

The council has supported the forum to become a company limited by guarantee, and consultations have been held to examine the number of community organisations which would avail of the centre.

Plans have been drawn up, with scoping works of potential sites completed, “but to date no site has been deemed suitable”, Mr O’Brien was told.

Scope

“The community and sports team will continue to engage with the forum to scope potential lands and examine the development of a multi-purpose community centre.”

Mr O’Brien was co-opted onto the council last March, replacing Garret Kelleher, who was elected to the Seanad. With a background in child protection and community work, Mr O’Brien has been calling for a community centre for the Ballincollig area for more than a decade.

He told The Echo that approximately 16 community organisations are currently in effect homeless in Ballincollig.

“For organisations to either grow or to provide additional services, there’s really no community space,” he said.

“Take the basketball club, they have to go to Neptune. The resource centre can provide a lot of services to Ballincollig, but they don’t have space, and we have no youth facilities in Ballincollig. With a population of nearly 30% under the age of 22, we need community spaces.”

Mr O’Brien said he was confident the local authority would “bring everyone together, identify a site, and work with the organisations to get this much needed facility”.

However, with the current council term ending in June 2029, he said he did not think Ballincollig would have its community centre by then.

“But I would be hopeful we will have made significant ground by then,” he said.

Mr O’Brien added that the hope was the council might supply a site, with central Government supporting local groups in what is likely to be a multi-million euro centre.