WE are writing as concerned residents of Ballyhea village, a small rural community on the Cork-Limerick border, just under the beautiful Ballyhoura Mountains.

DEVELOPER Owen O’Callaghan has launched a blistering attack on the ESB for failing to change its dam operating procedures upstream of Cork city despite last year’s flooding disaster.

CLONAKILTY’S Glebe House, on the town’s landmark Emmet Square, has had its Easter Rising.

IN the run-up to the general election it’s perhaps timely to consider the appalling lack of respect for our heritage which has been continually displayed by the Government, in particular since 2002 when Martin Cullen and his successor Dick Roche held the Environment portfolio.

THE owner of a holiday park pond in which a two-year-old baby drowned last summer has secured council backing for a fresh bid to have it filled in.

A NUMBER of schemes earmarked for small villages have been refused planning permission by Cork County Council.

It is hoped that revised plans for a €180m road between Cork and Ringaskiddy will ease the fears of some residents’ associations who expressed major concerns with the initial blueprint when it was launched in October.

A government minister has defended the pre-election sod turning on the stalled €53m Cork event centre despite no building work on site four months on.

Questions about housing density, traffic management, and potential environmental impact dominated the second day of an oral hearing on a new town plan for more than 5,000 houses, north of Cork City.

Nama bosses have warned Finance Minister Michael Noonan they must have flexibility in deciding pay levels for key staff, if the agency is to deliver its €4.5bn house building programme.

Almost €60m has been spent on the new National Children’s Hospital which has yet to be built, it emerged yesterday.

A Cork housewife yesterday told of her shock to learn two 150m-high turbines are to be built near her family home.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has defended the appointment of a pro-fracking company to lead a research study into the practice in Ireland.

Irish Air Corps concerns about the impact on helicopter safety of a proposed incinerator in Co Cork can be ameliorated if the company behind the application can guarantee it will contain any risk from the plume to within 150m of the stack.

Residents living next to Apple’s huge European headquarters in Cork have called for compensation following months of disruption caused by construction on its sprawling campus.

Cork GAA coffers will contribute €20m to the redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, board secretary Frank Murphy has revealed.

Despite objections from environmentalists, councillors have voted unanimously in favour of a contentious new access road to Killarney National Park.

The sale has closed on the former Lovetts’ restaurant in Cork’s suburbs, for 20% over its guide.