County Manager Martin Riordan came under severe pressure from councillors at this week's meeting of Cork County Council to include proposals for the development of a new town near Innishshannon in the next County Development Plan.

Tentative proposals to develop a major settlement at Annagh More to the north east of Innishshannon have existed for several years but have never been formally included in any development plan. The new town could see up to 3,000 residents as well as businesses, commercial and leisure facilities developed at the site between Bandon and Cork.

Responding to calls from councillors to include the proposal in the plan to allow public consultation on the issue, Mr Riordan said that such a move could have a "fundamental impact" on the current Cork Area Strategic Plan (CASP), rail policy, future investment and proposals for the whole county.

Mr Riordan said, "The CASP contains to dedicated public transport corridors, this would put those at risk. There are also fundamental issues regarding water supplies and waste in the area".

He said that any proposals would have to be worked out in detail before they could be offered for public consultation adding that if councillors went ahead with the plan they would have to be clear about exactly what it entailed and what the consequences would be for other areas of the county and current plans that are in place.

A strong proponent of the plan, Fianna Fáil's Cllr Alan Coleman said that Cork had been overtaken as the second fastest growing area in the country and that the county had to develop to accommodate an estimated 143,000 new residents by 2020. He said in that context the Annagh More plan should now be looked at again. He said that a growth corridor had been identified from Cork to Clonakilty and this now needed to be developed.

Fine Gael's Kevin Murphy agreed it should be included for public consultation as did Labour's Paula Desmond. The County Manager made clear his objections as he felt it was unviable and would have serious implications for planning in the county and the ability of the council to secure funds for existing plans.

Councillors agreed to discuss the wording of an amendment to the development plan with the manager so that a reference to Annagh More could be included in the final document.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment