Playground bylaws not enacted two years on

Councillors have expressed shock that playground bylaws, which included the unlawful taking pictures of children, still haven’t been enacted two years after they were drawn up by Cork County Council officials.

It emerged yesterday that the bylaws, first mooted in 2009, were supposed to be enacted as a pilot project in North Cork after they went out for public consultation in Feb 2011.

The chairman of the council’s Northern Division, Cllr Noel McCarthy (Labour), said he was concerned that nothing had been done to enact the bylaws which would have allowed gardaí to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, including drinking and drug dealing.

“We’ve been speaking about this for a couple of years and nothing has been done about it. The time is gone for waiting, it (introducing the bylaws) has to be acted upon now,” Mr McCarthy said.

Cllr Frank O’Flynn (Fianna Fáil) said the bylaws had been drafted and gone out for public consultation. He said after that process, all councillors expected the legislation to be enacted.

“It’s an absolute disgrace this hasn’t happened because we went through the process. The bylaws went out for public consultation in 2011. What happened (since) was a shambles. We should put this process in place immediately,” he said.

Cllr Tim Collins (Independent) said that gardaí could respond to the bylaws, but they had their own problems with lack of manpower.

He maintained that when the bylaws were eventually introduced, the council should put CCTV cameras at all playgrounds which could then be used to identify those who were breaking the rules.

Cllr Kevin O’Keeffe (FF) said he was deeply shocked that the council hadn’t at least acted to stop paedophiles from taking pictures of children

“They have very strict rules in swimming pools about this. We must enact these bylaws immediately,” he said.

Cllr Ronan Sheehan (Lab) maintained about 20 local authorities in the country had put playground bylaws in place and he couldn’t understand why there was such a delay in Cork.

Council officials said there had been some concerns about the implementation and enforceability of the bylaws.

However, they added that they would try and progress them and would inform councillors of this progress at their next monthly meeting.

The original draft bylaws contained 34 stipulations which had fixed penalty fines of €75 for minor infringements.

More serious and persistent breaches could result in an appearance before a district court where a fine of up to €1,904.60 could be imposed.