Simple boundary extension won’t address Cork city’s planning needs, seminar told

Extending Cork City Council's boundary simply to include suburbs now under the control of Cork County Council will do little to address the city's planning needs over the next 50 years, a seminar on local government reform has heard.

Planner William Brady told the seminar the choices facing Cork under the review ordered by Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly were either an expansion of the existing Cork City Council area or a merger of Cork City Council and Cork County Council into one authority.

Mr Brady, who is attached Centre for Planning, Education and Research at University College Cork (UCC), said the centre had reviewed the evidence from other councils and concluded that the most effective solution would be an expansion of Cork City Council into county council territory.

However, Mr Brady said expanding the city council into suburbs contiguous to the city such as Grange, Donnybrook, Frankfield and Doughcloyne, which are currently administered by Cork County Council, would do little to provide for proper long term planning for the region.

“A city boundary extension that just takes in the suburbs around the city really only takes us up to 2015. In the planning centre we believe we need a boundary extension that will work for the next 50 years to take account of future growth and allow the city manage itself.”

Mr Brady said that while the centre wasn’t advocating any particular boundary on a map, an expanded city council area based on the concept of Metropolitan Cork, in existence since the Land Use and Transportation Study (LUTS) in 1978, was the preferred solution.

This would involve the expansion of the city council area to include satellite towns such as Ballincollig, Carrigaline, Blarney and Glanmire and would give the metropolitan area a population of 250,000 to 300,000 and a substantial rate base to fund development.

This would leave the county council area with a population of around 230,000 which would still provide a substantial rate base whereas an expansion of the city out to a 30km radius to include towns like Mallow, Fermoy and Bandon would impact negatively on the county.

“Expanding the Cork Metropolitan area out to the Mallows and Fermoys would create an authority with a population of 400,000 but would leave a much reduced Cork County Council that would effectively be administering the most peripheral and marginal areas of the county.”

Mr Brady also argued against an idea favoured by some in the business community, that a merged unitary authority would increase efficiency and introduce savings. Local authorities were not like corporate entities and “bigger does not necessarily mean better,” he said.

The seminar was organised by Cork City Council and attended by about 90 political, business and education leaders but was not open to the press. It also heard from Dr Aodh Quinlivan of the Department of Government at UCC.