The future of Cork city and county could be undermined by politics

Having read your excellent balanced article on the city and county council mergers I note that Fianna Fáil deputy, Michael McGrath has no desire to see Cork become an ‘urban sprawl at the expense of an identifiable city centre core’.

I think other well-known Fianna Fáil TDs may have expressed a similar desire many years ago.

Developer Michael O’Flynn is a visionary in my view, despite some people’s view of the Elysian tower in the city centre. He is passionate in his views for the future of Cork city and county.

He presents a viable argument that the LUTS plan, envisaged by Joe McHugh in 1979, is dated. For the uninitiated McHugh was the city manager that gave us what we now call the Link Road, at that time a disused railway line. We have moved on since then.

I am positive that the future for Cork city and county as a unit will be of long-term benefit to both authorities. But let us not be blinded by political rhetoric from all political parties, especially coming up to election time.

O’Flynn and the likes of Owen O’Callaghan deserve to have their views assessed and analysed before any radical changes are made to the future of our city and county.

Denis O’Sullivan

Reeveswood

Douglas Road

Cork