Roads, housing suffer as council passes €11m cuts

CORE services in Cork are set to be severely impacted after councillors approved an €11 million reduction in the City Hall budget.

Roads, housing and recreation services will take a hit as a 7% cut in funding has left the city council with a planned spend of about €185m in 2012.

A number of councillors blamed the Government for the cuts.

Sinn Féin’s Chris O’Leary claimed the Coalition had “turned on the people with savage intent”. He said the Labour Party in particular had let the people down.

Socialist Mick Barry said a decision to cut developers’ contribution by up to 50% would “make rich men richer”.

Worker’s Party councillor Ted Tynan described the budget as “a result of a rotten capitalist system”.

City manager Tim Lucey, paid tribute to his staff for helping to put together what was a difficult budget at a time when “the IMF and the EU are breathing down our necks every quarter”.

Tempers ran high at times, with one amendment calling for the lord mayor’s €114,000 salary to be slashed to €35,000 so more money could go toward roads and public lighting.

Fine Gael councillor Jim Corr blamed “incompetent bankers and developers who borrowed millions” for the financial quagmire the country found itself in.

Among the badly hit services were roads and housing. No specific funding was allocated for estate road resurfacing, traffic-calming measures or laneway closures during 2012. There was also no money set aside for new public lighting or for carrying out improvement works.

However, all commitments made this year to any proposed projects in those areas will be honoured. Mr Lucey said the emphasis was now on a care and maintenance programme.

He said funding would be provided to carry out repairs to a number of quay walls by the end of 2012, including Sunday’s Well and Grenville Place.

In housing, councillors agreed to reduce by half, to €400,000, the amount of money allocated for disabled persons grants for people living in council housing stock. However, a provision of €2.7m is available in grants for proposed works in privately owned homes, under the disabled persons scheme.

Rents will not increase and while housing services will have an allocation of €41,034,700, only “limited” housing maintenance will be carried out, with the emphasis being on emergency and urgent repairs.