Collins - ‘I will fight Kanturk crematorium tooth and nail’
A LOCAL Cork county councillor has vowed to fight ‘ tooth and nail’ the plan to build a crematorium on the site of the former Duhallow Park Hotel at Drumcommer Beg, Kanturk.
In late September The Corkman revealed that the owners of the empty seven-acre site, Whitegate-based Classic Lodges (Ireland) Ltd, has lodged an application with local authority planners for the facility.
As had been anticipated, the application raised much debate locally, with more than 60 submissions lodged with planners against the facility citing a number reasons why it should not go ahead, including emissions, traffic congestion, environmental concerns and non-compliance with the county development plan.
Council planners initially shot down the proposal, ruling it invalid as only one site notice had been erected when there should have been two.
Earlier this month it emerged that Classic Lodges had lodged a second application for the crematorium on the site and that all of the people who had objected to the initial application would have until Wednesday, December 5 to resubmit their observations.
The authority is set deliver a ruling on the application by January 2 next year.
In the meantime, Cllr Timmy Collins (Ind) has urged council planners to give serious consideration to the plan saying it was his belief that “under no circumstances should a crematorium go on that site”.
“I would support the stance of many locals who believed this is not a suitable site for many different reasons. I my opinion, the site is not large enough for a crematorium. Having spoken to local undertakers and canvassed the views of locals it is also clear that there is no demand in the area for this facility,” said Cllr Collins.
He said of perhaps greater concern was the issue of traffic congestion along the N72 in the vicinity of the site of the proposed crematorium.
“We all know that a hearse is a slow moving vehicle and would have the potential to dangerously slow down traffic on what is a very busy stretch of road. In addition, when the new roundabout comes into play at Ballymacquirke Cross, it will release fast moving traffic that would have the potential to cause a serious accident should it meet with a slow moving funeral cortège,” said Cllr Collins.
He said that should the proposal be given the green light by council planners he would be prepared to take to join any public demonstration against the development.
“Under no circumstances do I want to see this go ahead and I will fight tooth and nail alongside the local community to see that it doesn’t,” vowed Cllr Collins.
“Should the council grant permission it will be appealed to An Bord Pleanála and I will march with the people outside that site and do what I can to ensure this site is not used for a crematorium,” he pledged.