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Lack Of Funding For Crosshaven ‘Disgraceful’

Lack Of Funding For Crosshaven ‘Disgraceful’ Writes Leo McMahon

‘Disgraceful !’ was how Cllr. Aidan Lombard (FG) at the monthly meeting of Cork County Council’s Bandon-Kinsale Municipal District described the omission of Crosshaven from funding under the 2017 Presentation of Towns and Approaches Scheme. Members were informed that under the scheme Bandon town would receive €20,000 and Kinsale €15,000. It provides for grass being cut more often and extra cleaning of footpaths and signs and weed control in the towns and approaches from June to September, plus the services of a mechanical road sweeper.

‘There’s a big discrepancy here. Crosshaven has half the population of Bandon yet it gets zero and to say it’s entitled to no extra funding is a smack in the face. The scheme has to be re-drawn,’ complained Cllr. Lombard who called for fairness but acknowledged the very good work by council staff in day to day maintenance.

MD officer Enda O’Halloran said his point had already been raised at a higher level in the council’s roads section and for some reason Crosshaven was classed as a village and not a town under the County Development Plan and therefore didn’t qualify.

Cllr Lombard said that under a new arrangement, the southside of Carrigaline and Minane Bridge, which are in Bandon-Kinsale MD, were now being covered by the Carrigaline office but with the transition of services that was supposed to happen from the Kinsale office to Carrigaline, Crosshaven was again left out because when it came to funding there was, he contended, no budget.

‘Is it any wonder why people in Crosshaven are so annoyed and feel fobbed off? They consider themselves a town and to say they’re entitled to no funding is disgraceful.’

It was difficult to face the people of Crosshaven, when Cllr Lombard argued, it should at the very least get €10,000 to €12,000 and it was no surprise they didn’t feel part of the MD, adding that it was a recurring thing in other allocations of funding. In agreement, Cathaoirleach Rachel McCarthy (SF) said in the West Cork MD, Schull which has a much smaller population than Crosshaven, got a grant under the scheme.

Senior executive engineer Charlie McCarthy said the grant was based on towns and to change it and get Crosshaven designated as a town would perhaps have to be addressed at county development plan level. The community in Crosshaven had to raise €16,000 for Christmas lights yet Bandon and Kinsale got money every year so ‘Bandon-Kinsale only’ was a recurring issue, complained Cllr Lombard.

In reply, Mr O’Halloran said each year business bodies in Bandon and Kinsale submitted an application towards the cost of Christmas lights and the relevant body in Crosshaven could do the same and would be treated in a similar way. Cathaoirleach Rachel McCarthy (SF) agreed with Cllr Lombard saying they were all guilty on this while Cllr Gillian Coughlan (FF) also said the omission of densely populated sections of the eastern side of the MD was stark and not being addressed.

All members welcomed the allocations for Bandon and Kinsale as it would significantly help Tidy Towns in both but Cllr Alan Coleman (Ind) said it was a pity that such a grant had to be depended on for works that once formed part of the council’s day-to-day council maintenance budget which was now clearly under funded. On the recommendation of Cllr McCarthy, Cllr Lombard undertook to forward a motion in the names of all MD members seeking funding under the Town and Approaches Scheme for Crosshaven. Cllr Murphy wondered why Kinsale got €5,000 less than Bandon and also called for additional funding to cover Crosshaven plus similar works near Garrettstown and other beaches but was informed that the scheme was confined to towns and approaches only.

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