Developments in Cork

@kite wrote:

Lane Homes have applied to Cork City Council to demolish the former Lovett’s Restaurant in Douglas and propose to construct 10 one bed, 23 two bed apartments over 2, 3, and 4 storeys.

Is this Lovett’s on the Well Rd? Firstly I never heard it was closing and secondly, as it is an old (18th Century?) country house I’d be amazed if it was being knocked…..

@Pug wrote:

With AIB blackpool closing down, what are the chances of Frinailla taking it in as part of their watercourse rd development? Would be hilarious if after all Kathleen Lynchs objections to their site, that they bought the AIB site which moved because they were refused planning on an objection put in by……..Kathleen Lynch.

No, I think AIB have their heart set on a move to the retail park in Blackpool. Unfortunately banks don’t really want to deal with the general public anymore, so they figure the closer they get to their business clients and the further they get away from real people the better 🙂 but that’s another day’s argument!

So, what with this fire at R&H Hall (delibrately started according to some reports), will we see the development of this area move forward at a quicker pace, or not? I know CCC had been in negotiations with all landowners in the docklands. I think it was on here that I heard that at one time, CCC had planned to move the City Archives (now located in Blackpool) to a new site, close to these silo’s. Now that would have been some progress!

I’ve mentioned this before, but we really need a full on Cork Docklands Authority to oversee this whole development and actually get it moving. I know CCC have set up a docklands directorate, and that’s a start, but we need to see national involvement and that of high profile business leaders and developers.
Perhaps some clever politician will set something up before the upcoming election. Could be a real votewinner for Cork!

@Pug wrote:

New Park N Ride facility going in at the Dunkettle Roundabout in the North East corner on the land between the roundabout and the Ibis hotel. I don’t go that way in the morning but I thought it was fairly choked with traffic already. Presume they will have some sort of system so the cars queueing to get in wont block everyone else.

Pug – I was under the impression that the park n ride was going in at North Esk (next to or on part of the railway owned land at their container terminal).
The attached aerial picture gives an idea of the area concerned, and a busy spot it is too given that you have the entrance to the tunnel, the intersection of the busy Dublin and Waterford roads, and the Cobh & Midleton railway.

Furthermore, Little Island industrial estate lies just to the east. To the north western corner, there are plans for several hundred houses in the grounds of Dunkatle House (not too sure what the status of that planning app is presently). If anyone is up to it, feel free to highlight the particular areas by highlighting the various elements in the photo.
Incidentally, I have several more aerial photos of Cork Harbour and given the recent debate about this thread, I am not too sure whether to post them in this thread, the transport thread, or the Cork Harbour thread! The photos cover all aspects and thus would most likely be relevant to all of the above although they would probably be best grouped together IMO. Suggestions on a postcard please before I commit any cardinal sins and breach posting etiquette;)

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the park and ride is going here::

Idiots. Absolute, complete, idiots.

1) Putting a P&R facility at the main intersection between the N8 and N25. The traffic is bad there already. With this, the P&R, the 700 houses to be built on the green space in the left of the picture, the NORTH RING ROAD and we have a disaster waiting to happen.

2) Long term plans to freeflow that roundabout. How the hell are they going to put slips in with a dirty great facility there?

I really wonder sometimes what these people are smoking.

A far better thing would be to buy part of the car storage plant near the Glanmire roundabout. Traffic not so bad, its not built at a bloody BOTTLENECK and the carpark facility is almost there already. Solving the railway line crossing wouldnt be too bad either.

Some idiots in the planning office though, jeez.

@THE_Chris wrote:

Idiots. Absolute, complete, idiots.

1) Putting a P&R facility at the main intersection between the N8 and N25. The traffic is bad there already. With this, the P&R, the 700 houses to be built on the green space in the left of the picture, the NORTH RING ROAD and we have a disaster waiting to happen.

what will really wreck your head is that it took them ages to come up with the plan and “years of lobbying” to put it there as per the examiner

They originally considered that area you were talking about where the cars are stored but decided against it. Thats a smashing idea about taking over the already existing spot where all the cars are stored already but i would imagine that whoever owns that would be looking for serious market values on it. Here is the piece from the examiner

Location of park-and-ride facility to be changed

Iarnr

@Pug wrote:

He said it would be of great benefit to workers from Glanmire, one of Cork’s biggest suburbs. “There will be a half-hourly peak-time service from the Dunkettle station which will mean that people from Glanmire will be able to use the park-and-ride and take the train to either Cork City, Carrigtwohill, Cobh or Midleton, where a lot of them work already. It will take a lot of people off the roads,” Cllr Gilroy said.

No it wont, those people will clog up the roads DRIVING TO THE PARK AND RIDE.

Any other country would have, say a free bus going from Glanmire to the P&R. Not here, you’ll have to drive to the bloody thing.

@malec wrote:

Hopefully this’ll get the thread back on track 🙂

I’ve taken a few more pics of the juries development, that glass part on the front is starting to look pretty good I think.

[IMG]

I was in Cork 2 days ago and I had the chance to get a good look at this as I was walking to UCC. I think it looks very well – the glass lift shaft defines the corner and what I didn’t realise is that the vertical glazing to the bedrooms is actually set in a bay window format so the facade is much more modelled than I had previously thought from the photos. I managed to grab a yellow coat who was working on the new bridge (dodgy stone by the way). Apparently the protruding piece at ground floor on the photo is the bar and the large glazed area to the end (opposite an abandoned petrol station) in the restaurant. Both the bar and the restaurant open out onto a terrace area that wraps around the front and side on the river bank which, judging from the angle of the sun when I was there, will be nice in the summer evenings. You wouldn’t miss the entrance canopy either!

The new Terminal at Cork Airport is lovely to look at and inside, it’s large and relatively well laid out. Certainly it could do with more (working) air bridges, but we’ve got to realise that the airlines themselves are the ones which won’t use them!

The main problem I see with the airport at the moment is that for all its new finery, it is still staffed by people who are at best, work shy!
What’s the point in having a huge bank of check in desks if there’s only one person to check in a flight. Queues are the inevitable result.
What’s the point in having four new baggage reclaim carosels if you’ve got one guy to unload the plane and transport them to the terminal and laod them on the carosel. It doesn’t help that yer man thinks he’s in some sort of slow bicycle race either.

Forget about a new terminal, just get new (and more) staff.