10 August 2018
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
The Green Party has denounced Cork City Council for removal of the last public green area in the Tank Field.
Politics – News from the Green Party in Cork
Works started this week at an area designated as public open space on the Tank Field. Plans released to the Green Party show that the area will be turned into an access road and coach parking for the adjacent GAA pitches.
Speaking this morning, Oliver Moran, the Green Party representative in the Cork City North East ward, said:
“It’s a disgrace. This is an area designated in the city development plan as a public green space. It’s now being turned into a car park for the GAA, meaning the entire Tank Field is being handed over.”
“The North East ward already has an absolute dearth of parks. There are no playgrounds at all in Mayfield. The one playground in St Luke’s was rated by the city council themselves to be in the top five drug hotspots in the city. It was left to the nearby residents to fund-raise to clean it up after being abandoned by the city council.”
“The city council have hundreds of thousands coming from the arrangement they have with the Department of Education to handover lands at the Tank Field to them and, primarily, the GAA. They’ve rejected calls for this money to be earmarked for development of other public spaces in the area already. But the loss of this park is the final straw. They cannot keep selling off public amenities and expect residents to just put up with it. Something has to give.”
