No resources to assess damage

It is difficult to determine if illegal parking is the cause of damaged footpaths, City Hall has said.

A recent meeting heard how Cork City Council does not carry out assessments of additional costs associated with damage caused by illegal parking.

David Joyce, City Hall’s Director of Services for Roads and Environment said: “It would be exceedingly difficult to carry out such assessments. Footpath renewals are prioritised based on pavement condition, public liability claim history and customer service requests received.

“It is difficult to determine the reason for pavement failure from these records and accurately associate any damage that may be attributable to illegal parking.”

Mr Joyce was replying to a question from Green Party Councillor Dan Boyle who asked if officials knew the costs associated with fixing footpaths that were damaged by illegal parking. Cllr Boyle said he was “particularly pleased” with Mr Joyce’s response. Speaking about what could cause footpath damage, Cllr Boyle said: “It can’t be footfall, it might be weather related but surely we must be able to measure the pressure of heavy vehicles on pieces of tarmac and concrete at any given time?”

Mr Joyce explained that Cork City Council manages a road network of over 1,100km and while not all of them have footpaths on them, a significant portion would have footpaths at one or both sides of the road.

He added: “The amount of footpaths we’re managing is well in excess of 1,100km and probably in excess of 1,500km of footpaths. We do not have the resources to go out, manage and monitor every single one of those to understand what might have negatively affected a footpath.

“What we do is react when we get service requests. We don’t have the resources (to assess) what damaged a footpath,” Mr Joyce concluded.