Developing Cork County: part two
Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien sparked fury amongst Cork County Councillors by ordering changes be made to Cork County Development Plan 2028 this week, and our transport expert gives his verdict.
Councillors appalled at national “interference” in new Development Plan
Cork County Councillors were “frustrated, disappointed and appalled” to be told this week that Housing and Local Government Minister Darragh O’Brien was stepping in with a Ministerial Directive to change several items in Cork County Council Development Plan 2028, the contents of which we began covering on Tripe + Drisheen last week.
Amongst changes to the CCDP that the Department of Housing, backed up by the Office of the Planning Regulator, want to make to the Cork county plan is the removal of a special provision for a hotly contested retail outlet centre in Carrigtwohill.
Mayor: “despicable”
Feelings ran high at the meeting on Monday, with County Mayor Gillian Coughlan describing the Ministerial directive as “despicable” and with many councillors saying the directive eroded the very function of locally elected representatives.
“I think the draft ministerial direction indicates a complete lack of trust in us, which is despicable and is undermining public trust in their local elected representatives,” Cllr Coughlan said.
“We have voted as a chamber and the majority ruled, and that’s the process of democracy. If local democracy gets eroded, we’ll just be window-dressing: they’ll be making the plans in Dublin and we’ll be rubber-stamping them down here.”
Fermoy MD Councillor Frank O’Flynn said the Ministerial directive was an “absolute disgrace,” and that it left councillors “fighting for the survival of our county.”
The Housing Minister gave six reasons for stepping in; most damningly, his office wrote that Cork County Development Plan “fails to set out an overall strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.”
Too much residential land in Bantry, and that retail outlet in Carrigtwohill…..
He also took exception to what was deemed an excessive amount of land being zoned as residential in Bantry, the rezoning of Greenbelt land as Industrial in Fermoy, and to specific provision in the plan for the much-disputed Carrigtwohill retail outlet, which has been subject to two High Court proceedings already.
Under the directive from the Minister, Cork County Council will have to join forces with Cork City Council to develop a “joint retail strategy” for the wider Cork Metropolitan area, which is outside the city bounds and which includes Cobh, Carrigtwohill, Glounthaune, and Passage West.
Carrigtwohill councillor Anthony Barry told the meeting he was “frustrated, disappointed and appalled” by the directive. “We’ve spent many late nights and put a lot of work into the development plan and I think it’s appalling that an unelected body can come along and force changes,” he said. “Will the views of the general public carry any weight? Is this process controlled by the Office of the Planning Regulator?”
Tripe + Drisheen have been asking for an interview with a member of Cork County Council’s Executive to discuss the development plan, and now the latest news of the Ministerial involvement, for over a week. We have been told that people are too busy for an interview and the only way to get responses is to email a list of questions, not our preferred method. We will update when we get a response
Water Quality
Last week we posed several questions to Irish Water on their response to the Cork County Development Plan and the water body’s capacity to provide the various upgrades in terms of water treatment and water supply that would come with a 17% population increase over six years.
“Irish Water made submissions at both the ‘Draft Plan’ Stage and at ‘Material Amendment’ stages, outlining capacity availability for the various larger
towns in Cork, which were identified in the ‘Core Strategy’ of the County Development Plan,” their press spokesperson wrote in an email.
Irish Water are currently operating under the Draft Regional Water Resources Plan - South West and “are considering population targets as identified in the
various County Development Plans in the South West Region.”
Cobh
Irish Water assured us that Cobh’s sewage treatment scheme is complete and that waste water from Cobh is already being treated in Shanballymore, across the harbour. They say the treatment plant has capacity for the projected additional growth of 30% increase in population the town is set for.
Mallow
“The Mallow wastewater treatment plan upgrade project commenced on site in 2021 and is anticipated to be completed in Q4 2023.”
Clonakilty drinking water supply
“Irish Water is currently progressing an interim project which will provide sufficient additional capacity to the Clonakilty Water Resource Zone to cater for current and future population targets to the end of the current County Development Plan (2022‐2028). This will involve a new watermain connection to the Bandon Water Resource Zone; this project is anticipated to be completed within the lifetime of the County Development Plan, subject to all statutory and budgetary approvals processes.”
Transport Plan
Guest writer Ciarán Meers of Cork Commuter Coalition writes:
66% car usage to 49% in six years
The Cork County Development Plan contains a number of interesting targets, such as a population growth of over 60,000, as well as a variety of other notable policy shifts, such as the planned shift from 66% car usage to 49% over just six years.
It really is best to conceptualise this plan (or at least the transport sections) as a 'greatest hits' album of the myriad of plans of the past half-decade. This is because most of the key drivers of the strategy are already in place - Cork's suburban rail upgrades that will be the engine of the county's growth and expansion have been in the pipeline since 2020, and have recently taken extra steps toward more frequent service.
Many elements of the county's transport upgrades have also been in motion for a while, with Carrigaline and other towns receiving the bulk of their bus improvements during the Cork BusConnects process, redesigning routes within the Cork Metropolitan Area.
The Connecting Ireland scheme, launched in late 2021, will be the chief driver of new town-to-town bus services. The many active travel schemes encouraged by the government have been fostered in various grants Cork County Council has received or will receive, like €22 million recently announced from the NTA’s Active Travel Investment scheme.
The future of the county is the city
It's important to look at how Cork County will look in the coming decade. One of the more notable trends is the extent that the county will still be heavily reliant on Cork City itself for much of its projected growth.
There are a variety of development zones that play off growth related to the city. Maglin, for example, south of Ballincollig, is zoned for a significant amount of growth, but is located past the new city bounds.
Growth around existing rail corridor
Much of the growth area will be in and around city-adjacent infrastructure - namely the rail corridor stretching from Mallow, through Cork City, and to Midleton and Cobh.
Areas are targeted for development around the rail line, with commitment to the new stations in the county, like Water Rock, Monard, and Carrigtwohill West. These areas also make the most sense to grow, and will also be easiest to do so, with a variety of housing development in close proximity to new stations, and will likely comprise a very high percentage of the county's growth. There’s strong emphasis on these being public transport-based communities, with walkability and cyclability at the heart as well.
This seems to be version two of the county’s previous strategy, given the loss of a lot of previous hubs in the county such as Ballincollig, Douglas, and Blarney to the city during the boundary adjustment. Granted, for reasons of smart spatial planning, this is fully supported and encouraged by Cork City Council, central government and other governmental organisations. These areas also have special consideration, with noted flexibility around certain parking regulations, for one.
The balance of power will not be in favour of the towns dotting West Cork, for all their tourism strength, but in the main arterial routes to the city.
Densifying towns
Densification in towns is emphasised across CCDP 2028, both for the creation of more housing and as an enabler of better active transport.
To envisage this, don’t imagine a second Elysian tower being built in Ballydehob, but instead, more people living within the town boundaries - in mixed-use residences, small apartment buildings, or houses saved from dereliction - all of which are relatively sensible approaches to revitalising towns and tackling the housing crisis.
There is mention of “living above the shop” as perhaps the easiest way to achieve a yesteryear vision of towns with better land use than they do currently. The vision is for new buildings between two and four stories, but not ordinarily higher than six. Brownfield sites - areas of land with disused retail or decaying buildings sit on - will also be utilised wherever possible, as well as infill development within the existing town boundaries.
You can imagine the transport implications of all this, if a new development of 100 homes happens within Clonakilty town boundary as opposed to sprawled somewhere out to Shannonvale” there'd be a more facilities, shops and so forth nearby, people wouldn't have to drive for every single trip, the kids might be able to walk to school instead of needing to be drive.
New development will be subject to a set of well-written but barely enforced permeability guidelines, to ensure that walking and cycling through areas is feasible. Dubbed as ‘10 minute towns’ - playing off the idea of the 15 minute city - they also incorporate the plan’s focus on placemaking, with the central idea that more compact housing in towns with easy walking, cycling and access to services.
General Transport Policy
There are a few bright areas, such as the requirement of bike parking for all new builds, a clear shift towards the normalisation of bicycle usage.
Though mandatory parking minimums have been retained, which presents a bit of a challenge to the focus on densification and modal shift in many of the towns and villages. Especially at a time in which some countries have gotten rid of theirs.
While there is a bit of flexibility noted for certain developments, such as those along the train line, switching to an advisory mention may better balance many of the different interests in housing, transport, and land use.
Many parts of the plan are cheerfully lifted from the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy: the idea of mobility hubs as a halfway house between park-and- rides and car parks, and envisioning bus and sustainable transport links at such areas too.
Conservative rail targets and no “West Cork line.”
The council will advocate for the reopening stations along the Mallow-Cork section of the rail line, like they did with the Carrigtwohill West station just last week, which could be great news for Buttevant, who have been without a station since the tragic train crash over 40 years ago.
Indeed at this week’s county council meeting, there was broad support from councillors for a motion to write to Irish Rail about the feasibility of reopening stations at Buttevant, Mourneabbey and Rathduff.
Unfortunately, there’s no similar commitment to rail expansion anywhere else. Despite the large support from the public and from local TDs for bringing rail to West Cork, a move which would guarantee the same economic growth that rail is expected to bring to the towns along the existing portion, this idea is, unfortunately, absent in its entirety.
Greenway defence
One shift in attitude, however, is the commitment to protect disused rail lines from being used for industrial or housing developmentl this seems to be the ‘Youghal Greenway Defence’, where a greenway is viewed as a form of protection from encroaching development.
Though it’s a case of motorists, fear not: the dynamic hasn't changed that much. In particular, there are regular commitments to the role of the private motorcar sprinkled throughout the plan, notably that ‘Cork is a spatially large county and as such it is acknowledged that personal transport by car will continue to be a feature of longer trips despite the significant mode shift to sustainable transport that this plan seeks to achieve,” which I don't think anyone is disagreeing with. The extensive mentions of increased EV charging is in line with electric cars being perceived as the future of cars.
Round-Up
Even the least car dependent town in the region - Castletownbere - clocks in with almost 70% of work commuting done using private cars, so
44 bus stops are to be upgraded with shelters, and 35 to an accessible standard - as well as this gap of inaccessible shelters, it's rather clear that this number won't be enough in the long term.
The low-key decision to launch town bus services in Mallow and Midleton have also been absent from this plan, beyond a vague commitment to 'support', without them being mentioned by name, even.
There’s also support for the expansion of Local Link bus services
A lot of the data in the document comes from the 2016 Census - before many, many shifts have occurred; everything from a significant increase in LocalLink, to Covid-19 and it corresponding work-from-home rise, to the emergence of ‘Zoom Towns’. The 2022 census data will be rather revealing.
There’s enthusiasm for more greenways, especially the Cork Harbour Section of the Lee2Sea urban greenway that falls within the remit of the County Council
Conclusion: a plan of “modest promise”
Sustainable use changes will be a bit of a tough sell; will the council resist the siren song of developers promising housing in sprawling estates, as opposed to denser, town-living that supports healthier and livelier towns and villages?
Will the admission of the necessary role of roads end up being an excuse to undermine the more sustainable elements of the plan, even at a time when fuel prices are skyrocketing and county residents want more transport options?
Overall this is a scheme of modest promise, but will deliver tangible benefit to transport and towns alike if delivered in full. The timeline of six short years is also quite notable; in the grand scheme of things, if deliverable, that could be an almost overnight pivot in a far better direction to where the county currently stands in terms of transport.
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