A private debt collection agency hired by Cork County Council has told the local authority it was unable to collect nearly €1.5m owed by refuse charge defaulters.

The first phase of a project aimed at turning a castle in Co Cork into a tourist attraction will commence early next year.

He started in the most junior post in Cork County Council 32 years ago and has now risen to become its most senior official.

Despite the economic downturn, Cork County Council took in €101.8m in rates last year, up more than €10m on what it collected in 2008.

Nearly €4m is to be spent refurbishing vacant local authority homes in Co Cork this year — in a bid to put a dent in the housing waiting list.

Angry scenes are expected at next Monday’s Cork County Council meeting after it emerged the local authority only got a fraction of what other counties got from the Government to run its services.

Many business people and local authority tenants will breathe a sigh of relief after Cork County Council decided not to increase rates or rents next year.

More roads that ever before will be gritted in Co Cork if there is a repeat of the severe cold snap of Dec 2010 — and maps detailing the routes covered have just been posted online by the county council.

Despite pleas from three councillors, there will be no relaxation in pay parking bylaws in a Cork suburb any time soon.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan is to be told “it’s simply not good enough” that, just days before Cork County Council’s annual budget meeting, its manager still does not know what level of grant will come from central Government.

With a rate of €55.88 Mallow Town Council put out its stall as the cheapest place to set up business in Co Cork — and it has paid dividends even during the recession.

The Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte is to be told by a county council that Eirgrid’s plans for a major overhead powerline will be a blight on the landscape and may lead to serious health and economic implications.

Comments by Cork county manager Martin Riordan have fuelled further speculation that he is about to raise rates for the first time in five years and led to a major row between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Business leaders in Cork have called on the Government to ensure local authorities are properly financed so they don’t have to increase rates.

The future of town council buildings in Co Cork and the staff who work in them will be revealed before the end of the year, according to the county manager.

Deciding to shut down town councils and centralise local government within county council structures is one thing, but implementing the decision is a very different matter. What is going to happen to the buildings now housing the local council offices, and what is going to happen to the people working in them?

The first increase in rates in Co Cork in five years could be on the cards.

Cork County Council is to seek legal advice on whether it can ban the “importation” into the county of manure which has been claimed to contain chicken carcasses and which has led to an outbreak of botulism in cattle.

Council officials have been told that people in a flood-plagued town in County Cork can no longer accept delays in plans to remedy the problem.

Three interpretive centres are to be opened on Spike Island in the summer of 2015, which will kickstart a series of projects aimed at turning it into a major tourist attraction, according to county manager Martin Riordan.

Time and tide wait for no man, as Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney should well know.

Cork will get a new county manager following confirmation from the head of Ireland’s largest local authority that he will not be seeking an extension to his contract when it ends this year.

Businesses in several Co Cork towns are likely to face a significant rise in their rates when town councils are abolished next year.

Cork County Council has been urged to acquire, as a potential floating museum or restaurant, one of two Irish Naval Service ships due to be decommissioned.

Plans for a multimillion euro 40km bypass of one of the worst bottlenecks on the main Cork to Kerry road have taken a major step forward.

A pilot scheme involving litter clean-ups by a Cork County Council hit squad is to be extended and CCTV cameras are to be used as part of a beefed-up campaign to tackle illegal dumping.

A multi-million euro plan has been drawn up which will relieve traffic gridlock in a Cork suburb in the years ahead.

Cork’s new county engineer will have his eye on the ball.

Four potential sites have been identified in Cork for a national sugar beet processing factory.

Fears have been expressed that senior county council management may be withdrawn from West Cork as a result of boundary changes and local government reform.

Nearly 20,000 second-home owners in Co Cork have not paid the property tax on them — with just 12 days left to pay.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan is to be urged to halt a number of changes to the new local election boundary areas because it is claimed they will disenfranchise many people living in Co Cork.

The old Church of Ireland just outside Goleen is surrounded by graves, but now a new ghost could be about to join them.

A report is to be compiled within the next two weeks on a suitable site in Co Cork for a new sugar processing factory.

Cork County Council officials are involved in talks with 15 British military history groups in an effort to promote more visitors to the region.

Cork’s county manager Martin Riordan has strongly indicated there will be no postponement of a blueprint for future development, although there is already enough land zoned in the county council area for 77,000 new homes.

Refuse charge defaulters still owe Cork County Council over €3m in unpaid bills — despite the local authority employing a private debt collection agency to help recover the arrears.

A Cork town has vowed to fight realignment of county-wide commercial rates.

A community campaigner has called on rural Ireland to “stand up and fight” for the retention of social and economic services.

Cork’s county manager and elected members are at odds over whether local authority-run recycling centres should be privatised.

Cork’s county manager will today try to persuade Fáilte Ireland bosses to reconsider their decision to pull funding from a major tourism project in Cork harbour.

Three council workers who were suspended for filling a pothole are due back at work today after their suspensions were lifted.

Councillors have called for an urgent overhaul of pothole repair rules to make it easier for workers to respond to the national pothole crisis.

Three council workers have been suspended pending an investigation into how they were filling potholes.