Pier pressure for Cork County Council as Union Hall residents attend council meeting
Locals and elected councillors object to Cork County Council's plans to erect barriers at Keelbeg Old Pier after decades of structural warnings, but Chief Executive is adamant closure will go ahead.
Cork County Council’s Chief Executive has said a plan to shut off access to part of Keelbeg Old Pier in Union Hall will go ahead, despite protests by locals and by elected councillors.
A group of residents travelled to Cork County Hall to attend this month’s council meeting following on from a protest at the pier, which is a popular amenity used by swimmers and leisure craft, in early April.
However CE Tim Lucey said he had a responsibility to heed a recommendation in a report by engineering consultants Byrne Looby, carried out in 2020, that access to part of the pier be restricted in anticipation of a full structural survey and plans to restore the pier, which was built in 1885.
Byrne Looby conducted a visual survey of the pier and reported concerns regarding subsidence at the pier head.
Elected representatives from the West Cork MD had proposed a motion at the meeting "That Cork County Council suspend their plans to restrict public access to any section of Keelbeg Pier until an alternative solution is found and that Cork County Council renew its efforts to secure funding from the Department to carry out the necessary works required to reconstruct the Pier which the community have been using for the past 100 years."
A number of councillors spoke to slam delays to any attempt at renovating the amenity, which Cllr Karen Coakley described as “the life and soul of Union Hall.”
When Cork County Council were given the pier by the Department of the Marine in 1995, it was noted that it was in “poor structural condition.” Some rock armour was put in place to protect the structure but no renovation works have been carried out in the 28 years since.
Three reports warn of need for renovations
Structural reports in 2008, 2011 and 2020 have raised concerns as to the pier’s safety, but no funding has been allocated to make repairs.
However, Cork County Council did seek funding to pay for barriers to close off Keelbeg Old Pier. When Cork County Council previously erected barriers to restrict access, the barriers were removed “by unauthorised persons.”
€148,000 was allocated in 2021 for capital works to the adjacent new pier, which is reserved for commercial fishing boats.
“Complete lack of communication”
Cllr Joe Carroll said that a “complete lack of communication” with locals could be blamed for the planned closure of Union Hall pier. He said he wanted “immediate action from the council to put together the funding for a planning application.”
“Seablind” lack of investment in coastal county’s marine infrastructure
Other councillors highlighted the small budgets dispensed by national government to maintain Cork county’s marine infrastructure: as the county with the third longest coastline in the country, Cork County Council had regularly been allocated just €400,000- €500,000 per year to maintain all its piers, Lord Mayor Danny Collins pointed out.
Cllr Michael Murtagh told the meeting that overall budgets for maintaining marine infrastructure were much too small. “By neglecting reparation works, we risk being cut off from our culture and our history and our connection to the sea,” Cllr Murtagh said.
Cllr Marcia D’Alton, chair of the council’s Coastal Management Committee, said the local authority ran the risk of being “seablind” and under investing in the necessary planning and surveys for marine infrastructure.
“I did made a little report for the CE to demonstrate how important it was that we set aside funding to do the paperwork to bring these projects to shovel-ready stage,” she said.
Fears that barriers could remain in place for years
Cllr Paul Hayes expressed frustration at the lack of any move to restore the pier over significant time periods and said locals didn’t want barriers put up until there was a clear plan in place for the long-term works needed to be carried out at Keelbeg Old Pier.
“Now we have a situation where the council want to put up barriers and the public are concerned that if barriers are erected, it will be cordoned off for years to come,” Cllr Hayes said.
“It’s hugely frustrating. I’m asking the council executive, please don’t further antagonise the residents and visitors of Union Hall by putting up barriers without a plan in place.”
“This report is sitting on a desk for the past three years. Where’s the urgency?”
Mr Lucey clashed with Cllr Hayes in a heated exchange after Cllr Hayes claimed the chief executive was “picking and choosing” what parts of the most recent Byrne Looby engineering report he read into the council record, demanding that Cllr Hayes apologies and retract his remark.
Mr Lucey said the pier closure would go ahead. “I have a very significant responsibility when that type of report is presented to me,” he said. “It’s accepted that a portion of the pier should be closed off and let me make this clear, that will go ahead. It’s a fact that we will be closing it.”
Mr Lucey said efforts would be made to progress plans to renovate the pier “with the earliest possible date.”