Ever in advance of Port of Cork’s move from sites in Tivoli and Cork city’s docks, the first handful of changes are starting to take place on Cork city’s eastern fringes, either side of the landmark Silversprings hotel - an entity which changed hands itself last December as part of the €455 million Dalata Hotel Group takeover of the Moran-Bewley hotels chain.

A redevelopment of the Fox and Hounds site, in the northside Cork City suburb of Ballyvolane, has been approved by Cork County Council.

A blueprint for future development in East Cork includes plans for more than 5,000 homes, four primary schools, two secondary schools, shopping centres, parks, cycleways, and a railway station.

Cork County Council has been accused of sitting on €15.2m which it took in as development levies and which should be spent on improving roads, lighting, and footpaths.

A decade or so after some masterful conservation, the three terraced houses in Cork’s Bellevue Villas (where No 2’s a market relaunch) are among the city’s best examples of manageable, period home grandeur.

A COUPLE in their 20s are lucky to be alive today after a stolen car smashed into the vehicle in which they were travelling in Cork city.

LATE-NIGHT revellers are being offered transport home to several satellite towns in Cork in a new initiative.

AS an island nation, energy costs and energy sources for transport matter more to us than to most other countries: being competitive while keeping the wheels of motion and transport oiled means considering alternatives to oil and fossil-based fuels.

THIRSTY thieves crossed a railway line and several hundred yards of rough terrain in pitch darkness yesterday morning to steal 35 kegs of lager and stout from a Diageo compound in Co Cork.

IARNRÓD Éireann has again been urged to drop car parking charges along a busy commuter route after it emerged the company received €8,201,878 in development levies from Cork County Council.

The new Cork-Midleton rail line is due to be officially opened today, with a full schedule of operations set to come into effect from next Tuesday.

HE kissed the blushing bride, but came a cropper with a 10-month-old Munster rugby supporter who wasn’t going to be puckered up to by anybody from Leinster.

IARNRÓD ÉIREANN has been criticised for a “twin track approach” to disabled people in Cork.

GREEN Minister John Gormley last night staunchly defended controversial budget measures which hit the elderly and low-paid hard.

IARNRÓD Éireann has started laying rail tracks on the €105 million Cork-Midleton line.

IARNRÓD Éireann has started laying rail tracks on the €105 million Cork-Midleton line.

THE troubled property and construction sectors were neither rocked nor shocked by the measures announced in Budget 2009.

IARNRÓD ÉIREANN has postponed issuing dismissal notices to workers who have mounted an unofficial picket in Cork after one of them agreed to abandon the protest.

IARNRÓD Éireann is considering court action and dismissing staff in order to remove an unofficial picket, which has stopped track-laying on the €105 million Cork-Midleton commuter line.

A ROW over who owns a plot of land has put the future of a new multi-million euro railway station in jeopardy.

AIB was last night refusing to clarify the nature of the bank documentation found dumped at a former landfill site near Cork city.

A SENIOR Health Service Executive official has admitted he was “flabbergasted” by the discovery of thousands of patients’ medical notes dumped at a disused landfill and confirmed further excavations are being carried out in the area to see if there are more.

INVESTIGATIONS into the discovery of hundreds of dumped medical files at a former landfill outside Cork city will move to an adjacent piece of land next week.

OWNERS of the land outside Cork city which was revealed this week as a dumping ground for hospital patient records recently put the site up for sale.

Work is continuing in Cork today to remove hundreds of confidential medical files from a former landfill site near the city.

Fury and concern were today expressed by doctors and medical groups that confidential medical records were dumped and ended up lying in a field.

THE Port of Cork has suffered a setback to its plans to open a €226 million container terminal at Ringaskiddy in 2011.

COMMUTERS can expect knockdown return fares of just over €5 when the €100 million Cork-Midleton railway line opens in 2009.

TRANSPORT is one of the biggest beneficiaries in the Government’s budget with Finance Minister Brian Cowen announcing an overall investment package worth €2.7 billion.

IARNRÓD Éireann admitted last night it will not meet its target to have the Cork-Midleton railway line reopened by next July, and says it is now more likely to be late October 2008.

TRANSPORT Minister Martin Cullen, still hasn’t signed the Railway Order which would enable work to start on Cork’s €139 million commuter upgrade.

AN estimated €100 million worth of houses are being proposed for Carrigtwohill, which is set to become a major commuter town when the Cork-Midleton railway reopens at the end of next year.

Niall McCarthy’s all-action displays for Cork have lit up many fine stadiums. Michael Moynihan met him at the field where he learned his trade.

OVER €10 billion must be invested in social and affordable housing over the next eight years to tackle the problems in this end of the market, a new economic report has recommended.