Group calls for harbour board to be disbanded

A CONTINUING problem with wrecks has led to a tourist and fishing village calling on the Government to disband a statutory harbour board in west Cork.

A group representing stakeholders in Baltimore accused the harbour board of “not doing its job” over the removal of the wrecks.

Trawler skippers, sailing school operators, divers and anglers are included in the group.

The row intensified yesterday after Baltimore Harbour Board chairman, Councillor Joe Carroll, refuted the claims. He accused the representative group of ignoring the facts.

However, Baltimore Harbour Users Group spokesman, John Kearney, claimed the harbour board didn’t want to generate any more business because it lacked facilities and wasn’t doing anything about removing a number of wrecks which were eyesores and discouraging tourism.

Several of those wrecks, he said, had been in the harbour for a number of years.

Mr Kearney noted the last piece of infrastructure development in the harbour was done “before the British left.”

Mr Carroll hit back. He said that a new pier, costing €1.1 million, was to be opened in the harbour next week.

“I’m 10 years on the harbour board and we’ve had a deputation to Dublin nearly every year looking for funding.

“The Department of Transport want Cork County Council to take over the running of the harbour. The money will be provided to the council when we can find private partners to help us with developments. We have lots of plans to develop the harbour,” Mr Carroll said.

He claimed it “wasn’t easy to remove wrecks” as their disposal involved a complex and long procedure to establish ownership.

“You can’t force somebody to remove a wreck unless you get a wreckage order,” the councillor said.

Fine Gael Cllr Tadhg O’Donovan, who is also a member of the harbour board, also blamed successive governments for their failure to provide adequate funding.

“We have been repeatedly let down over the years,” the Fine Gael councillor said.

Mr Kearney said that some progress was being made with onshore facilities, following discussions with Cork County Council

“But on the waterside we are going backwards. We will call on the minister for transport to respond to our concerns and we call for the disbandment of the harbour board due to their lack of co-operation and failure to address our concerns.

“We depend on tourism in this area. We’re a small fishing coastal village with tourism being a seasonal living for most of the residents. To have the image of the village sullied by wrecks in the harbour is very disheartening for the various committees and tidy towns committee who have done trojan work in the last number of years,” he said.

Mr Kearney’s group also called on the Department of Transport to ensure all the wrecks are removed as quickly as possible.