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Cork City Council response to an FOI request

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Date 09th May 2013

Re;     Freedom of Information Request 16/13

I refer to your request received under the Freedom of Information Acts 1997 and 2003, to access the following information:

“ Relating to the development of the Marina Park and the proposed sale/handover of land, including the land known as the Showgrounds and Marina Hall, to the GAA & Cork County Board for the redevelopment of Pairc Ui Chaoimh Stadium and the establishment of a “Centre of Excellence”.

1) All minutes, record notes (formal and informal), e-mails, diary entries and other documents relating to meetings between Cork City Council representatives and/or their agents, GAA representatives and/or their agents, Cork County Board representatives and/or their agents.

2) All minutes, record notes (formal and informal), e-mails, diary entries and other documents relating to that included any or all of the following organisations, companies, their representatives and/or their agents: Redscape, OKRA, O’Connor Sutton Cronin (engineers), Venhoeven CS (architects), Howley Hayes (conservation architects), Fehily Timoney (environment and ecology), Modus Operandi (art consultants), and Davis Langdon PKS (quantity surveyors) or any other members of the Marina Park design team.

3) All minutes of meetings that included any or all of the following organisations, companies, their representatives and/or their agents: Malachy Walsh & Partners, Consulting Engineers and Scott Tallon Walker Architects or any other members of the Pairc Ui Chaoimh redevelopment team”

Decision

A decision has been made to part grant your request.

I attach  copies of the relevant documentation.

If you have any queries regarding this correspondence you can contact me at 021-4924037.

1) All minutes, record notes (formal and informal), e-mails, diary entries and other documents relating to meetings between Cork City Council representatives and/or their agents, GAA representatives and/or their agents, Cork County Board representatives and/or their agents.

This information is refused  under

Section 27(1)(b) and (c) Commercially Sensitive Information

27. (1) Subject to subsection (2), a head shall refuse to grant a request under
section 7 if the record concerned contains

 (b) financial, commercial, scientific or technical or other information whose disclosure could reasonably be expected to result in a material financial loss or gain to the person to whom the information relates, or could prejudice the competitive position of that person in the conduct of his or her profession or business or otherwise in his or her occupation, or

(c) information whose disclosure could prejudice the conduct or outcome of contractual or other negotiations of the person to whom the information relates.

Section 20(1) Deliberations of Public Bodies

20. (1) A head may refuse to grant a request under section 7 if the record concerned contains matter relating to the deliberative processes of a public body (including opinions, advice, recommendations, and the results of consultations, considered by the body, the head of the body, or a member of the body or of the staff of the body for the purpose of those processes).

and Section 21(1)(c) Functions and Negotiations of Public Bodies.

21.(1) A head may refuse to grant a request under section 7 if access to the record concerned could, in the opinion of the head, reasonably be expected to

(c) disclose positions taken, or to be taken, or plans, procedures, criteria or instructions used or followed, or to be used or followed, for the purpose of any negotiations carried on or being, or to be, carried on by or on behalf of the Government or a public body.

2) All minutes, record notes (formal and informal), e-mails, diary entries and other documents relating to that included any or all of the following organisations, companies, their representatives and/or their agents: Redscape, OKRA, O’Connor Sutton Cronin (engineers), Venhoeven CS (architects), Howley Hayes (conservation architects), Fehily Timoney (environment and ecology), Modus Operandi (art consultants), and Davis Langdon PKS (quantity surveyors) or any other members of the Marina Park design team.

This information is part granted. The report of Howley Hayes (Architectural Heritage Assessment) is attached.

The remaining information is refused under Section 20(1) Deliberations of Public Bodies.

3) All minutes of meetings that included any or all of the following organisations, companies, their representatives and/or their agents: Malachy Walsh & Partners, Consulting Engineers and Scott Tallon Walker Architects or any other members of the Pairc Ui Chaoimh redevelopment team”

This information is refused  under Section 20 Deliberations of Public Bodies and Section 21 Functions and Negotiations of Public Bodies.

Right of Appeal

You may appeal this decision.  Please note that a fee applies for an appeal, with the exception of an appeal against the imposition of a fee.  The level of this has been set at €75.00.  In the event that you need to make such an appeal, you can do so by writing to:

Ms Valerie O’ Sullivan

Director of Services,

Corporate and External Affairs,

Cork City Council,

City Hall,

Cork.

…enclosing the appropriate fee.  Payment should be made by way of bank draft, money order, postal order or personal cheque payable to Cork City Council.  You should make your appeal within 4 weeks (20 working days) from the date of this notification, however, the making of a late appeal may be permitted in appropriate circumstances.  The appeal will involve a complete reconsideration of the matter by a more senior member of staff of Cork City Council.

Yours sincerely,

NOREEN MULCAHY

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION OFFICER

Press release: Marina Park Draft Masterplan II

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Ballintemple Area Residents Association and Save Marina Park dismayed at behaviour of City Manager with re-design of  Marina Park Masterplan to satisfy the GAA and Páirc Uí Chaoimh 

Despite spending in excess of €250,000 on landscape consultants in 2012 the City Manager, Tim Lucey, has ignored their recommendations and the recommendations of his own Planning Department in relation to the development of the showgrounds in Ballintemple as a new city park and instead has bowed to pressure from the GAA to increase their land take and reduce the area left open for the public park.

It is obvious from the re-drafted master plan, which was pulled from the Council in December 2012 at the request of the GAA, that the area to be used by the public to move freely between the existing Atlantic pond area and the proposed park towards the city end of the showgrounds has been cut from being over 60 feet (20m) wide to less than 40 feet (13m). It now looks as though this narrow channel will have a proposed 32m (almost 100 feet) high stadium on one side with over hanging seating looking onto the GAA’s proposed “centre of excellence“. The effect of this narrowing and overhanging will be to create a barren windswept little alleyway between the two pitches that will be neither inviting for people out for a stroll in the new park nor successful in creating a visual link between the new and old section of the marina park. On top of this, the public will only have access to this part of the park when it suits the GAA.

The whole re-drafting process to satisfy the GAA stinks of the sort of cronyism that we had all hoped had gone the way of the planning tribunals when developers held sway over Council’s to the detriment of the wider community. It looks like a-tug-of-the-elbow for a quiet word is how the GAA and the City Manager in Cork like to do their business. The 150+ objections to the initial re-zoning process in 2012 from the surrounding community also fell on deaf ears with the City Manager preferring to keep the County Board happy over the people who pay his wages, the People of Cork!

It was ironic that at the same Council meeting the City Manager called for Expressions of Interest from private developers for the construction of a large events centre for Cork. Why would BAM Construction (the old Beamish & Crawfords site) or Owen O’Callaghan (Albert Quay) pour any money into a badly needed events centre when the GAA have made no secret of their plan to run marquee-style events on their second centre of excellence pitch.
How Cork will ever win an another All-Ireland with concerts filling the training pitch will be something for the weary Cork fans to ponder in the years to come.
On top of all this is the constant issue of flooding. The show grounds and Páirc Uí Chaoimh are well below high tide level and already prone to flooding. The whole purpose of the original draft plan prepared by the Council’s Consultants was to address this flooding problem as the Docklands grew in size. Building irresponsibly on flood plains is the scourge of western Europe  but global warming, flooding and climate change don’t get a look in in the cosy relationship between City Manager Tim Lucey and The GAA.

While we welcome the proposed traffic plans to be submitted with any planning application for the re-development of Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the second pitch and the fact that Councillors raised the issue of parking with the City Manager the fact remains that we are still being besieged in our community by visiting fans who are forced to drive into the cul-de-sac of Blackrock/Ballintemple for matches in the absence of anything resembling a coherent traffic plan by the GAA, the City Council and the Gardaí.

We have always been pro-sport, pro-GAA and pro-community. We have, in our meetings to date, always sought compromise with all the stakeholders but it looks like it’smy way or the highway with the GAA on everything to do with the re-development of Páirc Uí Chaoimh. We have no doubt that this will eventually go all the way to An Bord Pleanála and possibly beyond.

ENDS

Note to editor: The Save Marina Park Group was formed following a public meeting in October 2011 arranged by Cllr.Des Cahill (FG) and attended by Cllr. Denis O’Flynn (LAB), Cllr. Chris O’Leary (SF) and Bob Ryan of the GAA Cork County Board that highlighted the proposed re-zoning issue and the proposed re-development of the stadium.

Cork City Events Centre

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Items on the agenda for Monday the 22 April Cork City Council meeting include the Cork City Events Centre & Marina Park / Cork GAA County Board redevelopment. These two items are more closely related than you might imagine.

The City Council plan to contribute to the development of an Events Centre in the City by providing €6,000,000 in funding to a private developer.  At the same time Cork City Council are supporting the Cork GAA County Board (another private developer) by providing 7 acres of the Showgrounds so that they can develop a one pitch ‘Centre of Excellence‘ next to Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

The problem here is that the Cork GAA County Board plan to generate revenue by using the Showgrounds, land that they acquired from the City Council at a knock down price, to host Marquee style and outdoor events  as they know the days of filling the Stadium for concerts multiple times a year with 40,000 people have long since passed. Their intention is to use the Showgrounds for medium size concerts ranging from 8,000 to 20,000  so as to pay for the €70,000,000 investment in the Pairc Ui Chaoimh redevelopment.

This will be in direct competition with the City funded Events Centre therefore threatening the Events Centres viability.

Cork City Council response to an AIE request

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Date 04th March 2013
Re: Request For Access to Information – Environment (AIE) Regulations, 2007-2011
A.I.E 01/13

Decision

A decision has been made to part grant your request.

1) All minutes, record notes (formal and informal), e-mails, diary entries and other
documents relating to meetings between Cork City Council representatives and/
or their agents, GAA representatives and/or their agents, Cork County Board
representatives and/or their agents.

This information is refused as it does not fall under the definition of environmental
information as set out in the AIE regulations.

2) All minutes, record notes (formal and informal), e-mails, diary entries and
other documents relating to that included any or all of the following organisations,
companies, their representatives and/or their agents: Redscape, OKRA, O’Connor
Sutton Cronin (engineers), Venhoeven CS (architects), Howley Hayes (conservation
architects), Fehily Timoney (environment and ecology), Modus Operandi (art
consultants), and Davis Langdon PKS (quantity surveyors) or any other members of
the Marina Park design team.

The report of Howley Hayes (Architectural Heritage Assessment) is attached.
Ecological, Drainage and Appropriate Assessment Screening reports are in
preliminary/draft form and are refused as they are classed as material in the course
of completion. These will be released to you on completion.

Other information is refused as it does not fall under the definition of environmental
information as set out in the AIE regulations.

3) All minutes of meetings that included any or all of the following organisations,
companies, their representatives and/or their agents: Malachy Walsh & Partners,
Consulting Engineers and Scott Tallon Walker Architects or any other members of
the Pairc Ui Chaoimh redevelopment team”

This information is refused as it does not fall under the definition of environmental
information as set out in the AIE regulations.

Right of Appeal

You may appeal this decision. In the event that you need to make such an appeal, you can do so
by writing to:

Ms. Valerie O’Sullivan,
Director of Services,
Corporate & External Affairs,
Cork City Council,
City Hall,
Cork.

You should make your appeal within 1 month from the date of this notification. The appeal will involve a complete reconsideration of the matter by a more senior member of staff of Cork City Council.

Yours sincerely,

________________________
NOREEN MULCAHY
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION OFFICER

Stadium Location

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Pairc Ui Chaoimh is due to be redeveloped by the GAA Cork County Board but considering the issues around the Stadium such as access, flooding and the lack of transport links is this the best location in the City for developing and modern stadium.

If the City Council and County Board were to decide on a new location for a 45,000 seat  Stadium in Cork City the following factors would need to be taken into account.

  • Close enough to the City to provide economic benefit to the City
  • Good road and rail access for local and traveling fans
  • Above sea level to mitigate future sea level change
  • Enough land to provide adequate parking
  • Scope to develop a Hotel near the Stadium.

Using Google maps it’s possible to identify a number of locations in and around the City. The old City Dump, Curraheen, Kent station and the docklands would be a few but these all have issues such as access, size (kent station) subsidence (building on a City Dump) and location, curraheen is too far removed from the City. Cork City FC already had a failed attempt at moving to this location. One location that has potential for a Stadium development and fulfills all the requirements set out above is Tivoli, the current location for the Port of Cork container terminal. Tivoli is on the opposite side of the River Lee to Pairc Ui Chaoimh it has existing rail links and good road access. Only those travelling from West Cork, Kerry would have to cross the River Lee. Tivoli is a brown field site that’s due to become available once the Port of Cork relocate to Ringaskiddy. This has been confirmed in a recent tweet from the Port of Cork.


View Larger Map
Tivoli marked with a green arrow.

If Cork City Council and the Cork County Board were to take a long-term strategic view on a Stadium location in Cork City then Tivoli should be consider. In the meantime the GAA could look to develop their Centre of Excellence in Curaheen with one of the colleges and modernise Pairc Ui Rinn so that it can accommodate 20,000 seated fans. Perfect for league and the smaller championship games.

 

Jan. 2013 – Request Made Under European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 to 2011 (AIE Regulations)

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Request Made Under European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 to 2011 (AIE Regulations)

Cork City Council FOI Officer

In accordance with the above mentioned regulations I wish to request the following information from Cork City Council relating to the development of the Marina Park and the proposed sale/handover of land, including the land known as the Showgrounds and Marina Hall, to the GAA & Cork County Board for the redevelopment of Pairc Ui Chaoimh Stadium and the establishment of a “Centre of Excellence”.

1) All minutes, record notes (formal and informal), e-mails, diary entries and other documents relating to meetings between Cork City Council representatives and/or their agents, GAA representatives and/or their agents, Cork County Board representatives and/or their agents.

2) All minutes, record notes (formal and informal), e-mails, diary entries and other documents relating to that included any or all of the following organisations, companies, their representatives and/or their agents: Redscape, OKRA, O’Connor Sutton Cronin (engineers), Venhoeven CS (architects), Howley Hayes (conservation architects), Fehily Timoney (environment and ecology), Modus Operandi (art consultants), and Davis Langdon PKS (quantity surveyors) or any other members of the Marina Park design team.

3) All minutes of meetings that included any or all of the following organisations, companies, their representatives and/or their agents: Malachy Walsh & Partners, Consulting Engineers and Scott Tallon Walker Architects or any other members of the Pairc Ui Chaoimh redevelopment team.

Please note that according to Article 3 (2) (a) of the Directive, you are obliged to provide the information requested “as soon as possible, or at the latest, within one month” (20 working days) of being requested. I look forward to a response within the time period prescribed.

I would like to have the information provided in electronic form.