Council urged to prioritise Ballydesmond street works

A SENIOR Cork County Council engineer has admitted that it will be next year before works commence on addressing what has been described as the “disgraceful” condition of the main street in Ballydesmond.

The issue was resurrected at the September meeting of the Kanturk/Mallow committee by Cllr Bernard Moynihan (FF), following confirmation that the design phase for the works is nearing completion.

At the meeting, council official Mary Hayes said it was hoped that the plans would be going out for public consultation within the next month.

“Once we get feedback from the local community and the proposals have been agreed we will be in a position to move on with a Part 8 planning application for a plan of works in Ballydesmond village,” said Ms Hayes.

Cllr Timmy Collins (Ind) said he wanted to know what the plan of works would entail, as a huge amount of work was needed to get the street back to an acceptable condition.

“At the moment the road is in a disgraceful state. I don’t think I have ever seen a street in such a bad condition. It would shake the ball bearings off a tractor,” said Cllr Collins.

He said that the council had pledged to resurface the street once Irish Water had completed works in the village.

“That is to be welcomed, but how much longer will people have to wait for this to happen? The people of Ballydesmond have had to put up with this whole saga for far too long now,” said Cllr Collins.

Senior Council engineer Jim Moloney said that works at a local wind farm had now been completed and that the Irish Water remediation works were now almost finished. He said the plan was that once a design had been agreed and funding put in place, work would commences on overlaying the surface of the street.

“The street, or at least part of it, will be resurfaced and footpaths renewed, but it will be next year before work starts,” he said.

Cllr Collins said that at least now there was “some light at the end of the tunnel” for the local community.

While Cllr Moynihan welcomed the fact that progress was finally being made on the issue, he said it must not be allowed to slip off the agenda.

“This whole saga has been dragging on for far too long with no end in sight. Now that, as my colleague Cllr Collins said, there is light at the end of the tunnel we as a Council must ensure that Ballydesmond is given priority,” he said.

“I would ask that we have a progress report on the project at each of our monthly meetings from now on,” he added.