Cork's three street cleaning machines out of action as Brexit delays spare parts

Cork Business Association president has offered to fly to England to collect the parts

It follows confirmation from City Hall over the weekend that all three of its mechanical street cleaning machines have developed faults and are off the road — one since March, one for the last two weeks, and the other since last Tuesday. Picture: Denis Minihane

The president of the Cork Business Association (CBA) has offered to fly to England to collect spare parts after it emerged that the city’s entire fleet of mechanical street cleaning machines has broken down and Brexit has delayed repairs.

Retailer Kevin Herlihy made the offer after Cork City Council blamed post-Brexit customs issues for the delays in securing the parts from the UK. One of the machines has been off the road for almost four months.

“Surely, we can find a way to get someone to collect the parts and bring them in faster?” Mr Herlihy said. “I’ll go over myself and collect the spare parts if it means we can get the machines back on the road faster. I’ll fly over and collect whatever’s needed.” 

It follows confirmation from City Hall over the weekend that all three of its mechanical street cleaning machines have developed faults and are off the road — one since March, one for the last two weeks, and the other since last Tuesday.

The council has two street sweeping vehicles and one street scrubbing and washing vehicle which are deployed regularly to clean and wash city centre streets, pavements and plazas. They back up the city’s cleansing department staff who sweep the streets manually, clean street furniture and empty street bins.

But in a statement a council spokesperson said all three machines are out of operation due to “mechanical failure”. The street scrubbing and washing vehicle has been parked up since early March when its front brushing mechanism stopped working.

The two street sweeping vehicles are out also of operation — one since a fortnight ago and the other since June 6 — due to overheating and steering issues.

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In a statement, the council said: “We are awaiting parts from the UK to repair. But new customs systems in the UK following Brexit are resulting in a lot of mechanical repair parts being held up.” 

Mr Herlihy praised the council for the targeted deep-cleaning work done by power-hose crews in selected parts of the city centre in recent months. However, he said the delays to the repairs are just not acceptable, and a way must be found to fix the machines as soon as possible, especially as we come into the busy summer season and tourists are around.

“The main streets, St Patrick’s St and the Grand Parade, were designed by an architect from Barcelona and they would be fine in a sunny city like that,” he said.

“But in Cork, we rely on the rain a lot to keep the streets and paving clean. And so after a month without rain, and with the machines out of action too, several areas of pavement, especially in high-footfall and pedestrian areas, are looking tired and grubby.”