Cork suburb residents oppose narrowing of footpaths for new sustainable transport corridor

Residents of Summerhill North in Cork city, David and Charlie Murphy with Valerie Kent and her children Finn, Laoise and Jessie standing at the yellow line showing part of the footpath which will be taken away when the new BusConnects corridor is introduced. Picture: Dan Linehan

Residents in a Cork city suburb have staged a protest against the National Transport Authority’s proposed BusConnects plans for a sustainable transport corridor in their area.

The NTA says bus travel times along the 3.5km Mayfield to city centre route will be slashed from 35 minutes to 12 minutes when new bus corridors are installed.

But a new draft proposal for the plans does not address the St Luke’s Residents’ Association’s fears about narrowing pavements and removing on-street parking, spokesperson Hugh Lorigan told the Irish Examiner.

Locals were “disappointed and shocked” when they saw a second draft proposal for the route, drawn up following submissions from the public.

“We made a full proposal in the first stage,” Mr Lorigan said. 

Now this is the second draft proposal, and it’s worse than the first one.

The BusConnects plan for Mayfield to Cork city centre, one of 12 proposed sustainable transport corridors included in the €600 million NTA bus scheme for Cork, involves narrowing footpaths and removing 62 on-street parking spaces on the busy Summerhill North to accommodate a bus corridor alongside two lanes of traffic.

Further up, it would also remove car access on the Old Youghal Road by the use of “bus gates". The plan involves Compulsory Purchase Orders to acquire two areas of off-street residential parking, at the bottom of Summerhill and at the top of Clarence Terrace.

Protesters say there isn’t room for three lanes of traffic on Summerhill and that the proposed narrowing of pavements will create access problems for those in wheelchairs, families with pushchairs and the elderly.

The 12 proposed Sustainable Transport Corridors proposed for Cork under the BusConnects Cork plan.

“To accommodate this carriageway expansion the existing footpaths are being made narrower, by as much as 50%, reducing them to just 1.18m in places,” Hugh Lorigan said. Protesters drew a line on the existing pavement to demonstrate the new pavement width as it appears in the NTA’s second draft plan.

The National Roads Authority recommends a minimum width of 1.8 metres for pavements on newly constructed roads. The Irish Wheelchair Association says a two-metre pavement permits two-way accessibility, with a minimum of 1.5 metres for a wheelchair to pass safely.

Residents are in favour of protected bus corridors, but not at the expense of safe pedestrian access, especially in an area of high school density, Mr Lorigan said.

“We’re actively in favour of bus corridors. But they can’t put in a bus lane and two lanes of car traffic and then take the pavements away. 

This is a living community and an architectural conservation area. We want parking for the vulnerable, and two lanes of traffic, not three.

A press spokesperson for the NTA told the Irish Examiner it has been engaging with residents’ groups, including with representatives from Summerhill North.

“At our most recent meeting with this group, we shared with them a revised draft proposal for discussion,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We are continuing to review the proposals for STC B, and look forward to further engagement with the group in the weeks ahead.”