Cork Events Centre update
Top Line: Cork City Council executives have had three meetings with Live Nation, the multinational events management company tipped to run the live events element of the long-delayed Events Centre, within the past year to discuss funding options, according to the return on an FOI (Freedom Of Information) request sent by Ellie.
Details: Against an international landscape that saw live events collapse worldwide last year, Live Nation lost $7 billion in revenue in 2020, fuelling rumours that they may bail on the Cork Events Centre. However, Cork City Council’s executive are adamant that it’s going ahead.
February saw the five-year anniversary of a high-profile political sod-turning photo-op for the project.
Meetings between Cork City Council and Live Nation took place on the 25th of November 2020, the 15th of December 2020, and February the 3rd 2021 according to the FOI return.
“These meetings took place primarily to discuss and negotiate a funding agreement for the proposed Events Centre,” the FOI return said. Details of the contents of the meetings were refused in the return, and also refused on appeal.
A greenway runs into controversy
Top Line: The Passage Railway Greenway project ran into a nice mess this week bringing in with it the City Council, the Gardaí, TDs, councillors, a solicitor’s letter and a lot of face palming.
Details: In late April, councillors were briefed on the route the council is expected to take with phase two of the greenway. A public consultation favoured a route along the estuary; the city council have an alternative route in mind, along the Rochestown Road.
It transpired that afterwards, a submission had made been by the Gardaí “to help inform early design decisions for phase 2 of the B’rock/Passage Greenway” according to a City Council tweet. In a follow-up tweet, part of the council’s efforts to “clarify a misunderstanding,” the council got a name to go with the submission:
It’s also worth nothing that there are no plans for a public toilet on this stretch of the greenway, or roadway, as it is looking more like.
Acronym of the week: EPR, or Emerging Preferred Route. Council jargon for “this is the route we’re going to take” re. greenways. Dutifully picked up and repeated by all Cork media.
Sign of the week:
I should point out that as dog owner Mairéad Casey told us for our long read on her campaign to get local dog parks into Cork, most dog owners do clean up. For those that don’t, call them out!
Cork in Numbers:
6: the number of women councillors in Cork City Council. 25 are men.
17: the number of women councillors in Cork County Council. 37 are men. (*Correction: I said 38 in the podcast)
That’s all for this week’s edition, back next week with our long read and our Friday round-up. If you have a story you think we should be covering, please email either of us at jj.odonoghue@gmail.com or emailellieobyrne@gmail.com. Slán tamaill, JJ agus Ellie.
