A \u201cperfect storm\u201d is predicted for commuters in two of the biggest towns in East Cork as thousands more houses are built there and an already creaking roads network becomes totally overwhelmed.<\/p>\n
The County Development Plan (CDP) projects that there will be huge population growth in Midleton and Carrigtwohill over the coming years and that the main N25 road serving them will not be able to cope with the additional commuter traffic generated.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a Cork County Council meeting, Social Democrats councillor Eamonn Horgan warned of looming chaos.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAs of the 2022 census, the population of Midleton was 13,906. According to the new CDP, Midleton\u2019s population is expected to grow to 27,854 by 2034, doubling in size. This would make it the largest town in Co Cork,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis growth is expected to be met by building an additional 8,549 units within the town\u2019s confines. It should be noted the town\u2019s confines are also to expand, with an additional 74 hectares of land being zoned for housing need,\u201d said Mr Horgan.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cCarrigtwohill has a similar story. As of the 2022 census the population there was 5,568 and is expected to grow to 14,968 by 2034. That is a projected population growth of 169%.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Mr Horgan said this will all be going on while the upgrade of the road network has been stalled in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe upgrade of the Carrigtwohill to Midleton dual carriageway has only been recently given the green light once again with a nominal sum of \u20ac500,000 being made available in 2026,\u201d Mr Horgan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is to conduct an assessment of previous phases and to see how it aligns with updated policies and legislation. The opening of this upgrade is many years away, taking into account possible redesign of elements, planning and construction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upgrade<\/p>\n
He said \u20ac1m has been made available for the formulation of a plan for the upgrade of the N25 from Midleton to Youghal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis upgrade, along with the Lakeview Roundabout is some years away also.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Horgan has pointed out that the reopening of the Midleton\u2013Youghal railway line could ease the looming transportation crisis, but again, even if approved, it would take years to complete.<\/p>\n
He said the only feasible, realistic alternative is to use what is already there, \u201cwhat is already called for by many, and a solution that is easily ramped up within a couple of years. That\u2019s a strong, reliant, frequent Local Link service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Horgan won unanimous cross-party support for the council to write to the minister for transport, Darragh O\u2019Brien, and the National Transport Authority (NTA) to ask that sufficient funding be made available so as to transform the Local Link bus service in East Cork into a multi frequency, seven days a week service.<\/p>\n
Overhaul<\/p>\n
Mayor of County Cork, Independent councillor Mary Linehan-Foley, said there needs to be a complete overhaul of public transport in the region if they\u2019re to stave-off traffic mayhem.<\/p>\n
Councillor Michael Hegarty, the Fine Gael leader on the council, said the local authority had repeatedly asked the NTA to come before it and discuss the issues, but it had declined to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to be serious about reducing the number of vehicles on our roads then we have to have a full functioning public transport network,\u201d Independent councillor Peter O\u2019Donoghue added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cperfect storm\u201d is predicted for commuters in two of the biggest towns in East Cork as thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[79,28858,43164,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-367922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-cork-roads","10":"tag-east-cork","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}