Council urged to aid Millstreet Country Park reopen for 2017

CORK County Council must do all within its power to try to ensure that Millstreet Country Park reopens in 2017.

That’s the view of local county councillors who have urged the authority to contact management at the Park to see assistance it can give to ensure the facility is opened for business this year.

Raising the issue at the February meeting of the council’s northern area committee, Cllr Bernard Moynihan (FF) said he was disappointed to hear that the lack of visitor numbers was the reason behind the closure.

“This is a facility that has huge tourism potential for North Cork. As the local authority I believe that we have a role to play in seeing what action can be taken to get this decision reversed,” said Cllr Moynihan.

His comments received the widespread backing of his council colleagues, with Cllr John Paul O’Shea (Ind) saying news of the closure was greeted with huge disappointment.

“Millstreet Public Park is a fantastic amenity and we need to do all that we can to ensure all our tourism facilities are open to the public,” said Cllr O’Shea.

Cllr Timmy Collins (Ind) said the closure of the Park would be a “big loss” to Millstreet and the surrounding area.

“My fear is that once a place closes down for 12-months, it will become very difficult to get it back up and running again,” he said.

Cllr Gerard Murphy (FG) said that while news of the closure was disappointing, it should be noted that the management at the park were working on a viable plan to ensure it reopens in 2018.

“As a council, we must do all that we can to make sure this happens. Some time ago there were discussions with the Port of Cork to bring visitors from cruise ships visiting Cork to the park. This is one avenue that could be explored,” said Cllr Murphy.

“Management have said they have a plan to ensure the Park opens next year. If the tourism section of this council can help in any way in formulating that plan, it should do so,” he added.

Cllr O’Shea agreed, saying it was disappointing to see the number of tourists visiting North Cork decrease at a time when visitor numbers were increasing nationally.

“There is obviously an issue here. Through consultation with our tourism section we may be able to address that,” he said.

Divisional manager James Fogarty said he had listened carefully to the councillors comments and ask the head of the council’s tourism directorate to speak to management at the Country Park.

“On a wider level, this shows how we must capitalise on our tourism offering here in North Cork. We have a lot of attractions that are unknown to visitors and we need to promote these in the right areas,” said Mr Fogarty.

“First of all this requires an inventory of what’s there. If we are to go after international visitors, we need to make our offering very strong,” he added.