Planning Bord's rejections of proposed Ringaskiddy facility hightlights need for development of Rail Freight

The Refusal by An Bord Pleanala to approve the Port of Cork Development Plan is a damning indictment of Government‘s lack of a cohesive policy on critical infrastructure, according to the Irish Exporters Association

The planning board said that while it accepted the need to move port activities from Tivoli, it believed that the Ringaskiddy site did not have an adequate road network.

The Port of Cork had applied under the Strategic Infrastructure Act for permission to develop a new €160 million container terminal at Oysterbank in Ringaskiddy, but An Bord Pleanála refused permission last Friday following a 15-day oral hearing into the matter in April.

Ger Downey, Chairman of the IEA Southern Region stated:

“The planned location of the development, far from adding to traffic congestion on the N28 route linking the area to the Cork Ring Road, would have facilitated Ireland’s major Pharmaceutical, Healthcare and high-end Food Product manufacture cluster at Ringaskiddy, giving quick and safe access to shipping services for imports of raw materials and exports of finished products. The IEA calls on the NRA to proceed with the upgrade of the N28 as a high priority”.

The Association expressed surprise that and An Bord Pleanala placed so much emphasis on the need for a Port development to be rail connected, given the effective abandonment of rail freight by Iarnrod Eireann and the Department of Transport.

The IEA has campaigned to have rail freight restored, particularly to the Ports of Dublin and Foynes and supports the recent statement by Minister Micheal Martin TD, highlighting the need for a return to rail as a means of transporting freight in order to reduce CO2 emissions. Irish Rail has purchased, under Transport 21, a fleet of suitable rail wagons for the carriage of all container sizes, as a resultthe Association sees no impediment to a rapid move of container traffic from road to rail. These new wagons are currently lying idle.

The IEA calls on the Port of Cork to move with the utmost speed to re-apply for planning permission that will meet the needs of exporters in the Munster region to operate in an efficient and competitive manner. The IEA also calls on the Governments Critical Infrastructure Review body, set up to streamline critical infrastructure and chaired by the Taoiseach, to become involved and show they have real powers to progress the Port of Cork’s much needed Development Plan.
The IEA stated that more than 95% of manufactured exports leave Ireland by sea and as ship sizes grow, existing facilities at Cork will become quite inadequate for efficient shipping.


In a related development, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has urged the Port of Cork to consult more widely with local groups in Cork harbour when preparing any alternative plan for the transfer of its container terminal from Tivoli to another location in the harbour.


Mr Martin said the board's decision clearly highlighted the need for a return to rail in the years to come as a means of transporting freight in order to reduce CO2 emission.

Comment: This laudable and rather sudden concern for the development of rail freight services in Ireland, is interesting in the context of the proposed Bremore Port development. If this port proceeds, it will have to have road and and any possible rail connections provided for it where none exist. Cork and the Shannon Region ports, for example, have adjacent rail facilities., all that is needed are the resources.
"There were a lot of concerns among local residents and environmental groups in terms of the specific plans by the port.

"I think the port will have to take those concerns on board and they will have to consult more with people in the harbour before they come back again."


Sources:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0630/1214764285530.html

http://buckplanning.blogspot.com/2008/06/minister-urges-port-of-cork-to-think.html

http://www.portofcork.ie/news-events.aspx?id=154

€4bn Cork Docklands scheme to replace existing port

Plans for a new quarter on 400 acres in Cork's Docklands are gathering pace with some developers expecting to be on-site in 2010.

With a resident population of 20,000 - as well as 650,321sq m (7 million sq ft) of non-residential development and the provision of up to 25,000 jobs - the new Cork Docklands will be, as City Manager Joe Gavin puts it, the size of "a sizeable Irish town".

The Docklands comprises 400 acres of land extending down to Páirc Uí Chaoimh with 4kms of waterfront all within a 20-minute walk from City Hall. The massive regeneration programme - which will cost in the region of €4 billion to €5 billion according to Gavin, and will take about 15 years to fully complete - proposes a vibrant mixed-use quarter which will be an easterly extension of the city centre.

Since the Docklands Strategic Study was launched in 2002, there has been significant interest generated in the Docklands which has seen property values in the area rise significantly in the past five years.

Gavin, who has been a major force in the city's revival over the past seven years since he took up the reins as city manager, says that the Docklands development will necessitate the building of new infrastructure, including two new bridges in Cork;(one at Water Street and the other at the Skew Bridge connecting the Docklands to the Lower Glanmire Road).

According to the City Manager:

"We have taken a policy decision that these bridges will be opening bridges so that the maritime traffic to the heart of the city continues into the future. There are plans to move the main port to Ringaskiddy in the future so there will not be as much commercial and quayside activity in the Docklands as there is at the moment."

The city council has purchased through CPO the 22-acre Cork Showground site on the east end of the Docklands for the development of a large amenity park called Marina Park for the city, which should also greatly facilitate the development, providing the prospective residents with a new state - funded park.

"We are hoping to see a mixture of retail, residential, leisure and educational use in the Docklands over the coming years. The area is privately owned by less than a dozen people who we have been working with closely over the last couple of years," according to the City Manager.

He has set up a special Docklands development team headed up by director of services, Pat Ledwidge, who has been working closely with all of these interested parties to prepare a master plan for the area.

Due to the scale of the development, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern also recently announced the establishment of a Cork Docklands National Forum to co-ordinate responses at Government level and support Cork City Council in the implementation of its plans.

A planning application is due to be lodged in July for the first stage of this project at the Docklands on a 30-acre site near Páirc Uí Chaoimh - the single largest development ever in the city.

The joint venture involving Howard Holdings and Tedcastles Oil will see the development of some 213,677sq m (2.3 million sq ft) of office, residential and retail space along with a 200-bedroom hotel in Cork Docklands.

Howard Holdings has already built the Clarion Hotel and office development at Lapp's Quay, one of the first new developments on the edge of the Docklands, as well as the Web Works at Albert Quay beside City Hall in conjunction with the Cork City Council and Enterprise Ireland.

The chief executive of Howard Holdings, Greg Coughlan, who are undertaking the development, says he hopes that the project will have started this time next year, with the first phase of the seven-year €2 billion project completed in 2011. He is proposing to build two 20-storey towers and a number of lower rise buildings as part of the high density development that he says is going to be "like a mini city".

"We have been working very closely with the council on this over the last five years, it hasn't just come out of the woodwork. It involves colossal infrastructure. There's a new local area plan for the south Docklands coming out at the end of May and I believe this will incorporate a lot of our own vision for the area," he comments.

Mr. Gavin stated that the council will need a lot of support from Enterprise Ireland and the IDA, as well as the private sector, in securing the target of 25,000 jobs for the area.

He adds the relevant factor: "We would really like to attract the third-level educational institutions into the area and, towards that end, we will be recommending to the Government that they allow tax breaks or direct funding for such new developments."

Speaking of the buildings themselves: "Generally speaking, the buildings will be six to seven storeys high with room for occasional taller buildings. The Elysian building beside City Hall is currently the tallest building in Ireland at 17 storeys.

"We are currently looking at preparing guidelines for tall buildings in Cork so whether or not there will be more this high remains to be seen," he says.

Greg Coughlan said his firm has engaged London-based architecture firm, Foster and Partners - which is involved in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site in New York - to work on the project. Work is to begin at the end of next year.

Coughlan said the biggest objection to the development of the docklands was the relocation of the Port of Cork and the vacation of the two Seveso sites - the Topaz and Gouldings' sites in Centre Park Road.

The Port of Cork is demanding a €60-€65 million relocation package to leave the city centre quays, but Mr Coughlan said it needed to vacate quickly for the docklands project to move forward. He said that all parties involved needed to sit down together and work out a solution. He did not rule out Howard Holdings contributing to the relocation costs for the port.

Meanwhile, the council has made a submission to government seeking the designation of the docklands for "targeted" tax incentives in the December budget.

The incentives sought include tax breaks for relocating the Seveso sites, incentives for dealing with contaminated land, incentives for attracting foreign investment, the provision of public infrastructure by the private sector, grant aid for owner occupiers and tax breaks to provide premises for biopharma, IT, financial services and third and fourth level R&D interests.


Comment:

There are many questions that could be asked concerning a development of this scale: whether Cork is able to support a development of this size; the height of the proposed buildings; the use of public land for the benefit of private corporations and the use of taxpayers' money to subsidise this vast proposal; and perhaps the most important of all, the future of Cork Port itself, which it is blandly proposed should simply move to Ringaskiddy.

The principal question is whether this will actually happen, in a time when cutbacks are already starting to be made in Government services, or whether Cork Port itself will simply be closed or downsized in the event of the redevelopment of Cork Docklands.


Sources:

http://www.corkdocklands.ie/?reloaded

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/commercialproperty/2007/0509/1178623486371.html

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=5039

http://www.howardpropertyplc.com/hh/index2.htm

http://buckplanning.blogspot.com/2007/10/plans-ready-for-2bn-cork-docklands.html