Calls for urgent solutions to stop widespread illegal parking on Cork's MacCurtain St

Trees and hedging, included in the original street designs to act as natural barriers to deter illegal parking, cannot be used

The concrete blocks which have been placed on the new public realm on MacCurtain St in a bid to deter illegal parking.

The Green Party has called for a fast-track design solution to prevent widespread illegal parking which threatens the vision for an historic Cork city street undergoing a multi-million facelift.

It follows the placing of several giant concrete blocks along new paving on the northern side of MacCurtain Street to prevent illegal parking while the construction work on the massive public transport and regeneration project continues.

“These concrete blocks are a stop-gap measure and can’t become a long-term solution. We don’t want this area to become concrete block central,” local Green Party Councillor Oliver Moran said.

“We certainly don’t want the great design for the street, or the vision for the street, to be compromised.” 

MacCurtain St is at the core of a vast public transport project, which has been underway for months across a large area in and around the city's northern quays, which has resulted in major changes to traffic flows in the affected areas. It will revert to two-way traffic within months, and serve as a vital public transport corridor.

Traders in the self-styled Victorian Quarter have bought into the vision, and are working with City Hall on designs for a unified outdoor dining experience along the length of the street.

But trees and hedging which were included in the original street designs in several areas, and which were to act as natural barriers to deter illegal parking, cannot be delivered.

Mr Moran said engineers encountered certain underground conditions, including the discovery of previously unknown basement structures, which prevented the planting of trees in several areas.

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It has resulted in cars and delivery vans parking illegally in new bike lanes, on new paving and plaza areas, and in bus bays, delaying scheduled services. The problem has been compounded by the lack of road markings and street signage in recently built-out areas.

“There is always some give-and-take from the design on paper to what’s delivered in reality, but the changes in this scheme are too different to allow it to go forward without revisions,” Mr Moran said.

“We now need the council’s infrastructure directorate to go back to the consultants who prepared the original designs for MacCurtain St — designs which went out for public consultation, but which can’t now be implemented in full because of those ground conditions — to come up with new design solutions to prevent illegal parking using other methods.” 

"We don’t want this area to become concrete block central,” local Green Party Councillor Oliver Moran said.

In the meantime, traffic wardens have blitzed the area, with figures showing that between January 1 and September 17, they issued 309 fines for illegal parking on MacCurtain St, Leitrim St, Coburg St and St Patrick’s Quay combined, with 159 issued to motorists on MacCurtain St.

Of those, 40 were for failure to display a valid disc, 39 for parking on a footpath, and 17 for illegal parking in a loading bay.

Mr Moran said increased enforcement worked along St Patrick’s Quay earlier in the scheme and should work again here. But he said road markings and street signs need to be installed quickly to facilitate the full enforcement of the regulations.

The Green Party is also trying to secure funding in the city’s 2024 budget for out-of-hours parking enforcement — extending the traffic wardens’ day beyond 6pm.