Council will be ‘shovel ready’ if it gets funding for vital path

Up to 40 families using busy roadside route to walk to school in village of Rathcormac

A SENIOR official with Cork County Council has reassured councillors the authority will be shovel ready for the provision of a footpath from Rathcormac village to the Mondaniel junction on the R639 if funding is provided by the National Transport Authority (NTA).

Independent councillor William O’Leary brought forward a motion at a recent Fermoy Municipal District meeting requesting that the local authority would consider applying under the active travel measures for the provision of a footpath from Rathcormac village to the Mondaniel junction.

Cllr O’Leary said there is a ‘genuine’ need for it. “It has come on the radar again lately. I understand that it is a long section of road and the cost of it is astronomical. There are other projects with a higher priority. There is a genuine need for it. You have upwards of 35/40 families who would all use it and are attending the school in Rathcormac. In the short-term would it be possible to put down a temporary hardcore surface? It would be a section of ground that would be public ground,” he said.

Fine Gael councillor Noel McCarthy expressed his support for the motion. “It is a good idea. It is heartening to hear from Brendan that it has high importance in our area. If we can be shovel ready and if the funding does come it would be a good opportunity. The residents really want to have it. They want to walk safely in and out of town. It is a good project. I fully support it.”

Fine Gael councillor Kay Dawson also lent her support to the idea. “I can see the challenges. The rural areas need the amenities just as much. I really like this one because it is an ideal project.”

Senior Engineer with Cork County Council Brendan O’Gorman provided the councillors with an update. “It is not a question of applying for NTA active travel funding. There are other legacy schemes on the radar in this district that members have been championing (e.g. link from Curtin’s Farm to Downing Bridge, Kilworth via R639 Moorepark interchange) that would receive higher priority for inclusion in this limited funding stream. The proposed link from Mondaniel back to the village would cost in the region €475,000 to include for walking and cycling infrastructure with solar lighting and would be subject to a Part VIII planning regardless.”

“I would be very happy to support this proposal,” said Mr O’Gorman.

“It is on our radar. It is just not on the NTA’s radar. At the moment they are providing very little active travel funding into this district. Over the last year the money has been redirected into the large greenway schemes in the city environs. Where schemes have merit they will be advanced. We have priority for Moorepark, Downing Bridge and Curtin’s Farm. That is our priority to get that over the line and get a design scheme on that.”

The senior engineer however said that he was ‘happy’ to move the scheme forward and they will be ready should funding be made available at a later stage by the NTA.

“I would see this proposal on Mondaniel to be second on that list. It needs a lot of design work. I will flag it with our design section for survey and design. We will move it forward to be shovel ready if the NTA will provide active travel.

“Sometimes the NTA will come to us late in the year saying a scheme has fallen through and they need to spend their budget.

“I am happy to move it forward. Let’s design it, have a scheme approved, have a planning, have it shovel ready and if the NTA come knocking we will be ready for it if they put funding in front of us,” he added.