Frustration at lack of masterplan for Cobh lands

Councillors call for land in Newtown area of Cobh to be developed for housing and sporting facilities

Councillors asked council engineer to do something about speeding on the Fota Road, saying local residents were worried about the speed of some of the vehicles which pass through the area. Picture: Larry Cummins

Local councillors have express frustration at the lack of a masterplan to open up a major tract of land for housing/sports grounds in Cobh and the fact adjoining Carrigtwohill — now the seventh largest town in the county — still does not have a library.

A meeting of the Cobh Municipal District Council heard Labour councillor Cathal Rasmussen criticise council bosses for not putting together a masterplan for 57 acres of council-owned land in Newtown, Cobh.

He said he could not understand this, especially in the middle of a housing crisis and that sports clubs in the area were also crying out for part of the land.

“This masterplan should be expedited as a matter of urgency in order to help develop this land bank for housing and other [sporting] activities. I have asked for this to be done on numerous occasions,” Mr Rasmussen said.

He criticised County Hall bosses for their response that master plans were being undertaken “in every other town and village but not this one".

Mr Rasmussen said the Newtown masterplan would also help the push for the long-awaited upgrading of the main road through Fota into the town and therefore it was vital the paperwork was completed as soon as possible.

Speeding

Meanwhile, he and Fine Gael councillor Sinéad Sheppard asked the council engineer to do something about speeding on the Fota Road, especially on the southern side of Belvelly Bridge in and around the former IFI site.

Mr Rasmussen said local residents were extremely worried about the speed of some of the 14,000 vehicles which pass through that area daily. He said it was not just cars, but buses and lorries that were travelling way too fast.

“The issue of excessive speed isn’t just here it’s all over the [Great] Island. We need to do something about this though. Once people go past IFI [heading north] they are bombing it,” he said.

Council engineers said they would do a speed survey in the area and report back.

Fine Gael councillor Anthony Barry won unanimous support from colleagues when he asked the officials to write to County Hall bosses to insist a municipal library was built in his hometown of Carrigtwohill.

“It is not a village now. It is the seventh most populous town in the county. There are 50-plus nationalities living in Carrigtwohill and it would be a major and much-need support for them,” Mr Barry said.