Sky Garden debacle - A mess that turned into a disaster

PUBLIC ridicule, controversy and acute embarrassment surround the costly affair of the multimillion-euro Sky Garden that won a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in June but which, fully six months later, lies mouldering in Cork awaiting its long overdue relocation at the city’s quiet riverside park.

Amid all the hullabaloo engulfing this expensive misadventure, a deep gulf of reality separates the leafy summer environs of Chelsea and the harsh economic winter now gripping Cork, where services are being cut back and heated debate continues over the future of the contentious development destined to be suspended high above ground level in Fitzgerald Park.

In this era of austerity, no doubt most people, especially the hard-pressed citizens of Cork, would agree with the sentiments voiced over the weekend by the garden’s designer, Diarmuid Gavin, who called for a halt to spending any more taxpayer money on the enterprise.