Car park at Cork Blue Flag beach is ‘more potholes than park’

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

One of Cork’s Blue Flag beaches and a county council-designated bathing spot has a car park so pot-holed that you’d need a 4x4 to drive through it, a meeting of West Cork’s Municipal District heard this week.

Warren or Cregane Beach, around a kilometre from Rosscarbery, is a designated Natural Heritage Area and one of a dozen beaches watched over by Cork County Council lifeguards during the summer.

Cllr Isobel Towse brought a motion before the Municipal District meeting calling on the council to resurface the beach’s car park.

“There are numerous businesses operating here and other amenities that draw crowds: A coffee van, two ice cream trucks, a surf school, yoga classes, a sauna, and a year-round pitch and putt club. It’s a very busy spot even in the winter months, popular with dog walkers and people just getting out for a walk on the beach, the cliff walk or indeed along the beautiful estuary to see extensive bird life,” the Social Democrat councillor said.

“I challenge anyone to name a car park that is pot-holier than the Warren car park. There are actually more potholes than flat areas. You’d need a four-wheel drive for some patches where the holes are quite deep. And kids coming off the beach don't want to put their shoes on and you have to carry them quite a long way the length of the car park so they don't step in deep puddles and on big sharp stones,” she said.

“Warren and lots of the other beaches and amenities around west Cork are beautiful and not just in the summertime. It's great that there is a car park there but it's not fit for purpose in its current condition. I'd say it's very embarrassing for tourists arriving from other parts of the country and abroad to see the car park in that condition,” he said.

The council’s response was that resurfacing the car park, which currently consists of unbound granular material, with an impermeable bituminous bound surface would require a new drainage system to be installed. In total the work would cost more than €200,000.

“There is currently no funding for this project but the project can be added to the Municipal District Capital Programme for consideration and prioritised by the members in due course,” a council official said.

In the meantime, Cllr Towse requested that the council fills in the potholes more regularly, particularly before next summer.