Call for ‘joined up thinking’ on ambitious regeneration plans for Cork town

Criticism has been levelled at the slow pace of delivery of major multimillion-euro urban regeneration projects in Carrigaline.

The lack of “joined up thinking” on two projects which are supposed to transform Carrigaline has been in the firing line.

Fine Gael councillor Jack White, who lives in the town, asked council officials at a meeting of the Carrigaline municipal district for a progress report on two plans — the Carrigaline transport and public realm enhancement plan (TPREP) which is a town-wide plan, aimed at improving roads, active travel and open spaces, and the Carrigaline urban realm plan, which focusses on developing the town centre and revamping the Owenabue car park area.

Mr White acknowledged some of the good projects undertaken by TPREP, but criticised the slow pace of delivery with the urban realm plan’s ambition for the town centre.

“We need to get a detailed report on how the plans for the town centre are progressing. For me, both plans have always been linked, but we haven’t seen that joined up approach communicated to elected members in some time,” said Mr White.

“We never got answers as to what happens next, after the much-mooted move of Lidl to the Circus Field, fell through. The Lidl site was due to be used for car parking, so we could free up spaces and redesign the Owenabue car park. That isn’t happening now, so we need to know, what is plan B?”

Urban realm

Mr White pointed out that the urban realm plan to tackle the Owenabue car park first got small URDF funding in 2017.

“Now we’re not far off the 10-year anniversary of that, we don’t want the uncertainty to drag on any longer,” he said..

Senior executive engineer John Slattery outlined some of the projects underway or completed in the town, such as the Inner Western Relief Road which opened in 2022, and the Bridgemount–Heronswood Link, which opened last year.

However, Mr White and Fianna Fáil councillor Patrick Donovan, who also lives in Carrigaline, reiterated the need for the big projects to move quicker and in tandem in the town and for the council to back up the ambition with action.

“We need get a dedicated timeline and boots on the ground. The town is in need of a facelift,” Mr Donovan said.

He added that dereliction is also a big problem in Carrigaline and the council must tackle this.

Independent councillor Ben Dalton-O’Sullivan, who chairs the municipal committee, said that while there had been some progress on the projects “more needs to be done.”

Council officials maintained that significant progress has already been made with active travel schemes and further under construction.