Liverpool 1, Cork city 0
I could not help comparing Liverpool with my own city of Cork. There are a lot of similarities — our love of sport, marine activities, and the knowledge that each city is the ‘real capital’ of its respective states — but the glaring difference between us is friendliness, or lack of it.
I’m not talking about the people, but rather the city councils. Liverpool city council go out of their way to make your trip as enjoyable as possible. Unfortunately, it is the opposite in Cork.
The signs are there on the way into both cities: ‘Welcome to Liverpool, the Friendly City’, while in Cork we have a photo of a tow-truck lifting a car, and the inscription, ‘Park Legally or be Towed Away’.
A car being towed or clamped is an everyday occurrence now in Cork. This ‘no mercy’ attitude by the council is destroying business life in our city. In the past seven years, traders in Cork city centre have had to endure the disruption caused by work on a new main drainage system, as well as the refurbishment of the streetscape. Of course, all of this was needed, and the new look of the city centre has been complimented by the few tourists who manage to get in.
Country people also have avoided Cork in recent times, and only travel to the city when absolutely necessary.
Working in the city has become a chore. The parking disc area should not have been extended to the suburbs until there was an alternative parking system in place. The park-and-ride at the Black Ash is fine for the people living on the southside, but what about all others?
Public transport has improved, but it is still totally inadequate. We need to start encouraging people back to our lovely city.
It should be a shoppers’ paradise, but the city council have a policy of keeping cars off the streets. It is working… people are avoiding Cork city.
Neil Murphy
Con Murphy’s Menswear
60 Patrick Street
Cork
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