GAA fans attending Cork stadium Páirc Uí Rinn have been urged to park responsibly after residents complained of “feeling under siege”.

Only emergency calls are monitored at the sole station in Cork City and county which records telephone conversations.

Top-ranking gardaí in Cork are moving to calm the fears of communities over the planned closures of four garda stations in the city and county by holding a series of public meetings.

A new computerised system is to be launched by gardaí in Cork as part of a radical shake-up of the force in the city and county which, it is claimed, will improve their service to the public.

A senior garda who helped negotiate a new nationwide pilot rostering system in the force says “it needs tweaking” because it has not worked as effectively in rural areas as it has in large towns and cities.

The number of assaults causing harm has dropped significantly in rural parts of Co Cork, but they are on the rise and “from more aggressive” elements in the city.

Dublin-based criminals are being blamed for a recent upsurge in burglaries targeting, in particular, suburbs on the southside of Cork city.

HEROIN use has been blamed for a rise in street-level and petty crime in Cork, despite an overall reduction in crime figures.

GARDAÍ have, so far this year, seized €1,758,633 of illegal drugs in Cork city, of which nearly a third was heroin.

THE number of community gardaí is to be significantly increased in Co Cork and people living in rural areas will have a greater say about when their local Garda stations should be open.