Move cars for clean sweep

RESIDENTS will be asked to move their cars in an effort to achieve a clean sweep of Cork’s suburban roads.

City manager Joe Gavin said he would first try to get agreement and co-operation from residents’ associations on the matter before considering introducing bylaws, which could result in fines for motorists who park on streets preventing mechanical sweepers from cleaning the roads properly.

The issue was raised at Monday night’s council meeting by Cllr Mary Shields (FF).

Ms Shields said she was concerned that the city’s fleet of mechanical road sweepers cannot clean suburban roads properly because of parked cars.

“These cleaners go out and all they do is weave in and out of parked cars,” she said.

The council’s environment director Gerry O’Beirne defended the current system and said introducing bylaws would be cost prohibitive.

He said the current system is kept under constant review to ensure its continued effectiveness.

His department is constantly in touch with the traffic department about areas where refuse trucks and road cleaning vehicles have problems with access.

But Ms Shields rejected his approach and called on Mr Gavin to consider introducing bylaws in specific locations on a pilot basis to ensure road sweepers are used effectively.

However, Mr Gavin said a system could be introduced with the agreement of residents’ association, and without the need for bylaws.

“If we can demonstrate that it works with cooperation then we can look at rolling it out,” he said.