Writes Leo McMahon
Carrigaline’s playground needs an upgrade, declared cathaoirleach Seamus McGrath (FF) at the monthly meeting of Cork County Council’s Carrigaline Municipal District (MD).
‘The playground is over 15 years old. It’s great but for the town and size of population it serves, it should be put in the mix for an upgrade.’, he stated, adding that some of the surface was damaged while some of the equipment was ageing.
Cllr Marcia D’Alton (Ind), seconding, agreed saying: ‘It’s a great playground but it looks tired’. She added that the MD should look at refreshing all its playgrounds and other amenities on a regular basis.
In support, Cllr Liam O’Connor (FG) asked that any upgrading of playgrounds take into account physical and sensory disability needs. Cllr McGrath agreed.
MD officer Noelle Desmond replied that the big issue was budget. There was little in the way of national funding while Leader funding starting to wane. More and more playgrounds were being developed as a collaborative project with the fundraising initiated by local community groups such as in Bandon, Cobh and Carrigtwohill.
Cllr McGrath said community effort helped provide the playground in Carrigaline but he was reluctant to see the council constantly leaning on the community at this point.
In agreement, Cllr D’Alton said Carrigaline was actively growing and suggested some of the planning contributions from developers should be used, regardless of whether amenities are in estates, because all the children in new estates would become users of the playground.
Resurfacing of the car park at Carrigaline Community Centre was welcomed by Cllr McGrath.
Cllr O’Connor asked for a report on the proposed extension to Owenabue car park, Carrigaline and its general improvement.
Ms Healy said there was plan some time back for an extension as a stand alone project. While it wasn’t totally ruled out it was now getting caught up with the proposed plaza urban regeneration of the car park entrance from Main Street. If the plan involved losing spaces, it was intended an extension could counter balance this. At present, the future of the car park was still in the mix but the Traffic and Transportation section was looking at it. Disabled parking bays had been painted and pot holes filled.
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