Port of Cork Company 'not satisfied' with revised planning application for Marina Market
Marina Market, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan
THE Port of Cork Company (PoCC) has said it is “not satisfied” that the revised planning application to retain the Marina Market at its current location adequately addresses concerns.
A fresh planning application was recently lodged with Cork City Council by R Properties Cork Limited seeking permission to maintain their use of the former Southern Fruits Distribution Company warehouse as a market/food emporium for a period of five years.
In a planning statement prepared by planning consultancy Butler O’Neill on behalf of the applicants, it states that R Properties Cork Limited were “surprised to have received a refusal decision”.
The planning statement asserts that outstanding issues could have been resolved by a second request for further clarification or information.
However, in a submission on the revised planning application, McCutcheon Halley Chartered Planning Consultants acting on behalf of PoCC said, that having reviewed the latest application, PoCC is “not satisfied that the concerns outlined in the previous submission have been adequately addressed or resolved within the revised proposal”.
Among the points raised in the previous submission, PoCC asserted that there has been a “significant increase in non-commercial/non-industrial traffic through the PoCC lands at Kennedy Quay” since the market was established.
R Properties Cork Limited’s revised planning application introduces some changes in a bid to address planning concerns.
Under the new application, all access parameters for the general public along Kennedy Quay have been removed with access facilitated off Marina Walk or Centre Park Rd.
The application also seeks permission for a number of other proposed measures including additional market units, the provision of 44 bicycle parking spaces and the rationalisation of the existing car park required to facilitate truck movements associated with waste collection and fire tender access. A total of 29 additional spaces are proposed.
However, PoCC contend that the revised proposal “does not address the existing issue of unregulated overspill parking on PoCC lands at Kennedy Quay”.
“The presence of pedestrians on Kennedy Quay will continue to be an issue under the revised proposals as people will continue to traverse the quayside from where they have parked their car to the junction of Mill Road and Kennedy Quay,” the submission continues.
It said PoCC views the Marina Market, which has been operating without planning permission since it opened, as “premature given the Port's continued operational activity at Kennedy Quay”.
R Properties Cork Limited’s revised application outlines a number of proposed measures aimed at addressing health and safety concerns including reducing the floor space for use by the public to less than 5,000sqm at any one time.
“In the Middle Zone, the HSA [Health and Safety Authority] advised against the granting of planning permission in the context of Major Accident Hazards, if the development was to attract the general public outdoors in numbers in excess of 100 people at any one time.
“To remedy this issue, Marina Market could commit to reducing the public in outdoor areas to less than 100 people at any one time.
“In response to this the applicant has removed all outdoor seating,” the planning statement says.
The HSA, in its submission on the revised application, acknowledged the proposed changes and said it does not advise against the granting of planning permission in the context of Major Accident Hazards.
Cork City Council is due to make a decision on the application by July 6.
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