Traffic impact still key issue in Cork port expansion
Senior Cork County Council planner Paul Murphy told Bord Pleanála inspectors yesterday it should consider including the clause given that traffic impact on the N28 was the key issue when the port’s 2008 expansion plan was rejected.
Traffic remains the principle issue with this application, Mr Murphy told the second day of the board’s oral hearing into the huge project.
The port has already trialled its Ringaskiddy Mobility Management Plan to control the flow of trucks onto the N28.
However, Mr Murphy suggested that if the board sanctions the expansion, the council should have access to the RMMP, and that it should be independently audited.
He also suggested the establishment of a port-funded ‘community fund’ based on its tonnage throughput, and he stressed the need for N28 and Dunkettle upgrades to be completed before the third and final phase of the expansion becomes operational.
Earlier, the hearing was told that the expansion will not damage Cork Harbour’s visual attractiveness, or its tourism and leisure potential.
Despite several submissions from the public citing concerns about a vast storage compound with shipping containers stacked seven high, and 89m high cranes, landscape and visual expert Raymond Holbeach said the entire development will be viewed against the area’s existing industrial landscape.
“This is a generally robust changing landscape,” said Mr Holbeach. “The industrial landscapes around the harbour and reclaimed lands are generally of low visual quality, with frequent industrial type buildings and equipment and vacant lands.
“Overall, the proposed uses are consistent with the character of this landscape, and while there will be a larger facility at this site, this is a robust and constantly changing landscape.”
Mr Holbeach said the visual impact of the scheme will be greatest on residential properties at Ringaskiddy, Monkstown and Cobh.
However, when compared with the port’s rejected 2008 plan, he said the current proposals are much smaller in scale and less prominent in landscape and visual terms.
Planning consultant Mairi Henderson said the development will not fundamentally change the character of the harbour.
The hearing was told that computer modelling techniques have shown it will have little effect on water flows or sediment transport, no effect on tidal levels, and no effect on coastal processes such as erosion.
It was told that surveys found no archaeological or historically significant material in the proposed development site, and that special dredging techniques will be used to minimise the impact on Monkstown Creek.
Ecology and ornithology expert James McCrory said that there would be no significant effect on the flora, habitats, and fauna in Ringaskiddy, or in Monkstown Creek, and that a range of mitigation measures will protect a breeding colony of about 50 pairs of common terns and a wintering roost for cormorants.
The hearing is due to resume next Tuesday with the conclusion of evidence from the Port of Cork.
Inland Fisheries Ireland has called for “compensatory arrangements” for commercial fishing interests to cover the loss of fishing habitat in Cork Harbour if the port’s expansion plan goes ahead.
The oral hearing was told about three and a half hectares of fish and crustacean feeding and nursery grounds will be lost if the project is approved. IFI raised concerns about this, and the removal of a wild mussel bed, the dredging of shellfish habitat and the permanent reduction of fishing opportunities.
The hearing was told however that the port company is in contact with various parties about these issues.
The hearing was also told the habitat loss is considered relatively minor when taken in the wider context of the harbour.
Marine ecology expert Gerard Morgan said no rare species were identified in the area and habitat loss, habitat disturbance, dredging, piling, and rock-blasting will not have a significant adverse impact on harbour fish species or populations.
A small colony of about five harbour seals who haul out around Haulbowline Island are most at risk from the scheme.
However, the appointment of a marine expert during construction should be enough to protect them, and other noise-sensitive species, Mr Morgan told the hearing.
Any areas which are dredged will recover in about two years and computer modelling of the dispersal of dredging plumes showed that the material will not adversely affect wild mussel beds or commercial oyster beds nearby, the hearing was told.
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