Upper Cork St building still standing as traffic safety questioned
While the remains of the building on Mitchelstown's 49 Upper Cork Street stay standing after a significant portion of it fell apart in July 2021, locals are getting increasingly frustrated at the traffic situation in the area.
Both pedestrians and drivers are aware of the extreme care that needs to be taken in the area particularly when it is dark. For those that are slower at walking, pushing buggies, or using wheelchairs, the danger is exacerbated even more so. The area is not very well lit-up, and yet more problems are created when cars and vans stop on Upper Cork Street with their ‘hazard’ lights on, creating another obstacle for people to deal with. Usually leaving the town heading in the Fermoy direction, this last situation, in this writer’s experience, is a regular occurrence.
For those young enough to remember doing their driving test, they may remember the RSA’s advice that drivers should not park '15 metres before or five metres after a pedestrian crossing or traffic lights’. This guidance exists so that there’s clear visibility for drivers to see walkers, but isn’t implemented, or isn’t possible to implement between the two red-painted ‘courtesy crossings’.
Walkers can be seen regularly peeking out from beside the boarded-up section on the path to see if it is safe to cross. Motorists who are not used to the town will not necessarily be aware that they are approaching two temporary pedestrian crossings so close to one another, and it’s not a stretch to say they will probably, in any case, be distracted by the sight of the half-collapsed building while also trying to navigate a speedbump-zebra-crossing.
Pedestrians too are guilty of walking on the road in front of the boarded up buildings rather than crossing the street to walk on the footpath. Then there are dirty sandbags and an orange barrier lying on the path for weeks, if not months, now.
The council have no update, only to say that it is an ‘ongoing legal matter and Cork County Council can’t comment’. This is the same message heard since November 2021.
When the pedestrian crossings were installed, Cork County
Council said that “These courtesy crossings will provide further peace of mind for pedestrians and ensure that the location allows pedestrians to pass the obstruction and cross the road, pending the permanent resolution of this matter.”
DANGEROUS STRUCTURE
In December 2021 Cork County Council served a notice on the owner of 49 Upper Cork Street that in the council’s opinion, 49 Upper Cork Street is a ‘Dangerous Structure’. Under the Local Government Act 1964 a local authority can undertake work on a ‘ dangerous building/structure’, including to purchase it compulsorily or doing work and charging the owner for that work.
Cork County Council does not keep a record of buildings that are deemed ‘ Dangerous Structures’. This is despite stating on their own website that the Local Government Act 1964 ‘Requires a register to be maintained by the Local Authority’.
The Department of Housing says it has no role to play in the resolution of 49 Upper Cork Street, stating: “The Minister and Department has no function in the matter being referred to here.”