Cork residents vow protest over snub for renewal funds

Residents of a Cork suburb have warned they will take to the streets if their area is not added to a tax incentive scheme designed to encourage regeneration.

Fri, 15 May, 2015 - 01:00

Sean O’Riordan

Anger has been expressed in Blackpool after it was omitted from the scheme, especially as other areas further away from the city centre have been included.

The Living City Initiative, a tax incentive scheme designed to encourage city- centre living and to promote the regeneration of residential and commercial buildings in designated areas, is accepting applications until 2020.

However, Blackpool is not on the list, even though surrounding areas such as of the northern end of Blarney St to the west and St Luke’s to the east have been included. The residents’ annual general meeting will be held in the local community centre next Monday night, and the exclusion is likely to be discussed.

Ger Buckley, who owns the Pantry shop and Subway franchise in the village, said the omission was “an absolute disgrace”.

“If the red line doesn’t move [to include the area on the tax incentive scheme map] the people of Blackpool will march,” he said.

He said Blackpool suffered from some of the worst dereliction in the city and it was incomprehensible that it should have been omitted from the scheme, which offers regeneration tax breaks for commercial and residential projects.

Mr Buckley said he and a friend drew up a list of derelict buildings in the area 20 years ago and today 97% of them are still unoccupied.

“We are not going to let Blackpool rot,” he said.

He said when the Blackpool Shopping Centre was built it was envisaged that the area between the city and it would then be redeveloped.

“What’s actually happened is that businesses which were in the village moved out there,” said Mr Buckley. “We lost AIB and Bank of Ireland, the post office, and Xtravision to the shopping centre. Even the library was moved to the upstairs of Boyle Sports. We didn’t expect the shopping centre to cannibalise the village.”

Local GP John Sheehan, who is also a Cork City councillors, said it was hard to justify how Blackpool had been left off the scheme.

He is hoping that junior ministers Kathleen Lynch and Dara Murphy will be able to get the decision reversed.