Its not the Gaa's fault that the price of the land plumetted the docklands development thing is just a pipe dream.
The Showgrounds is going to rack and ruin and needs to be knocked.
Plenty of scope for parks and the end of the Marina where the railway line starts acres of ground there full of bushes and high grass lying idle and of course the old Dunlop Pitch and Putt Course.
I hope we get to see a few more concerts in Cork rather than be ripped of going to Dublin.
We all do JBM but presumably the concerts will be held in PuC rather than the proposed Centre of Excellence?
I'd be surprised if that re-zoning gets past ABP. I also think that the rezoning is premature in light of a lack of any solid proposals from the CCB.
Some of the current arguments in favour of this happening are a bit light and probably dependant upon playing on the emotion of the average Cork GAA fan. I think its probably fair to say that while every supports the (badly needed) redevelopment of PuC its wrongly tied up with the issue of the rezoning for a private sports academy in peoples minds.
In effect, the Council are allowing the privitisation of public land that was earmarked for a public park. The Docklands Strategy is a strategic document with a timeframe of 15-20 years irrespective of current land prices and market conditions.
The need for an academy to serve Cork GAA. There is absolutely no requirement for a Centre of Excellence to have to be near PuC. Most sports teams have their training academies a fair distance from their stadium.
Also, the CCB have a poor record at delivering safe, strategic infrastructure or planning in general. We have all seen the CCB attempts to 'upgrade' PuC in recent years. We have yet to see any proposals for a redeveloped stadium or indeed any indication that they have secured funding to do so- indeed the opposite is probably the case judging by comments from Munster Council.
BTW- Im speaking as a Cork GAA fan and not a resident in the vicinity of the park and have no NIMBY interest in this. The park was intended a 'city' park.
Top class post and perfect summary of the situation. However, I am not sure An Bord Pleanala can have any influence on the actual rezoning as that is not in their remit. It will become interesting when a planning application is submitted and when it inevitably will end up in An Bord Pleanala. It is my view that they will consider the propsoed development [regardless of the re-zoned status] as being incompatible with the strategic objectives for this part of the docklands, generally unsuitable for the area and poorly conceived. Mark my words, this will never be permitted, and both the GAA and Cork City Council's elected memebrs are acting very foolishly. In fact, this may actually undermine the badly needed redevelopment of the Pairc, which I would love to see progress. This is old fashioned Cork Mafia bullshitology at its worst, with the Evening Echo employed to try to bully their way through in a pathetic display of ass-licking.
I wonder how many of those who voted for this declared their vested interests as elected members [as GAA memebers] and abstained accordingly.
As to the poster here who thinks we shouldn't have parks, just walks....cop on a bit....every civilized city in the world has open spaces. Parks actually tend to civilize a city, not the opposite. Get on a plane. Look around. Cork needs to grow up.
I'd be surprised if that re-zoning gets past ABP. I also think that the rezoning is premature in light of a lack of any solid proposals from the CCB.
Some of the current arguments in favour of this happening are a bit light and probably dependant upon playing on the emotion of the average Cork GAA fan. I think its probably fair to say that while every supports the (badly needed) redevelopment of PuC its wrongly tied up with the issue of the rezoning for a private sports academy in peoples minds.
In effect, the Council are allowing the privitisation of public land that was earmarked for a public park. The Docklands Strategy is a strategic document with a timeframe of 15-20 years irrespective of current land prices and market conditions.
The need for an academy to serve Cork GAA. There is absolutely no requirement for a Centre of Excellence to have to be near PuC. Most sports teams have their training academies a fair distance from their stadium.
Also, the CCB have a poor record at delivering safe, strategic infrastructure or planning in general. We have all seen the CCB attempts to 'upgrade' PuC in recent years. We have yet to see any proposals for a redeveloped stadium or indeed any indication that they have secured funding to do so- indeed the opposite is probably the case judging by comments from Munster Council.
BTW- Im speaking as a Cork GAA fan and not a resident in the vicinity of the park and have no NIMBY interest in this. The park was intended a 'city' park.
Top class post and perfect summary of the situation. However, I am not sure An Bord Pleanala can have any influence on the actual rezoning as that is not in their remit. It will become interesting when a planning application is submitted and when it inevitably will end up in An Bord Pleanala. It is my view that they will consider the propsoed development [regardless of the re-zoned status] as being incompatible with the strategic objectives for this part of the docklands, generally unsuitable for the area and poorly conceived. Mark my words, this will never be permitted, and both the GAA and Cork City Council's elected memebrs are acting very foolishly. In fact, this may actually undermine the badly needed redevelopment of the Pairc, which I would love to see progress. This is old fashioned Cork Mafia bullshitology at its worst, with the Evening Echo employed to try to bully their way through in a pathetic display of ass-licking.
I wonder how many of those who voted for this declared their vested interests as elected members [as GAA memebers] and abstained accordingly.
As to the poster here who thinks we shouldn't have parks, just walks....cop on a bit....every civilized city in the world has open spaces. Parks actually tend to civilize a city, not the opposite. Get on a plane. Look around. Cork needs to grow up.
The same thing happened during the strikes with the echo. Hopefully ABP will put a stop to this nonsense. In the meantime, we may dream but perhaps cork based members of the GAA ought to try to do something about the mafia that runs the association at county level. It is an embarrassment to our rebel moniker.
We all do JBM but presumably the concerts will be held in PuC rather than the proposed Centre of Excellence?
Are you suppose to build a modern new stadium so and keep the shoddy Showgrounds intact until this new park is going to be built thats going to be in tandem with the Docklands Development.
People who were against the Gaa getting the extra land forefathers were probably against the Gaa bulding the Cork Athletic Grounds and Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
We listened to many speeches which dwelt predominantly on how good the GAA is, how much it has done for children and how Cork needs the Centre of Excellence to be in the middle of our park so that it can win All-Irelands.
There were also speeches which dealt with the difficulties that the severance of our park will cause and with the anti-social behaviour that we witness after each match.
A number of councillors raised objections based on the procedures - they were expected to vote without any plans being available.
In the end the vote was 21 for, 9 against and the GAA can now proceed to buy the land for a song and apply for planning permission.
Needless to say we will be reading the planning application thoroughly.
Don't talk if yo don't know what you are on about. Plans for the re-development have been available since 2011.
Diagrams of proposed plans attached below:
Linear Mode
