A Profile of the City
Pure Cork - An Action Plan For The City
drive a series of initiatives and projects aimed at creating a walking network of high quality streets and amenity routes that provide direct connections between places and spaces, encourage people to walk more, and create a healthy living city with strong communities in a good urban environment. Cork Airport is the key gateway to the south of Ireland and is the State’s second largest airport after Dublin. In 2014, it welcomed 2.1m passengers, with flights to 44 scheduled destinations, and excellent links to three European hubs — London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and Amsterdam Schiphol. Direct flights to Boston and New York are due to commence in 2017. The growth of cloud computing, data analytics and other data intensive services means that Tier I Telecoms connectivity is a key infrastructural requirement for the retention and growth of Cork’s strong ICT cluster. The recent landing of a new Tier 1 fibre cable from the US and other proposed subsea cables offers major opportunities to ensure the high speed, lower cost international connectivity needed to underpin the competitiveness of both Cork City and the wider Cork region.
People, Place and Policy: Growing tourism to 2025 , emphasises the central role for Local Authorities in growing the local and tourism economy. The Cork City Development Plan 2015-2021 is the spatial land use planning strategy that provides a framework for the city’s development. Each of the plans’ seven strategic goals directly relate to delivering a high quality of place within the city. Specific objectives focus on a city with inclusive neighbourhoods supported by high quality residential, transport, recreational and environmental infrastructure, the protection and enhancement of the city’s archaeology, natural, cultural and built heritage and archaeology and the delivery of arts, culture, heritage and tourism infrastructure. Focus is given to the continued regeneration of the city centre and the strategic expansion of the Docklands and designated District Centres with their surrounding neighbourhoods. Cork City is undergoing significant trans- formation with several major capital develop- =ments and initiatives worth more than €300 million, currently underway and planned for the city. A major new retail development, together with the forthcoming events centre and the redeveloped sports stadium and port, will all act as catalysts for the further redevelopment and regeneration of large parts of the city centre. The Cork City Centre Strategy 2014 identifies three delivery strategies for improvingthe quality of place in the city: Firstly the improvement and development
SCHOOL OR COLLEGE, MORE THAN DOUBLE THE NATIONAL AVERAGE. Of the 63,807 jobs located in Cork City in 2011, over half (39,008) were held by employees living outside the city, mainly from Carrigaline (10%), Cobh (6%), Midleton (6%), Passage West (5%) and Carrigtwohill (4%). Over 90% of these commuters travelled by car, taking on average 36 minutes to reach their destination. The number of workers in Cork City using public transport, walking or cycling to their place of employment (17%) is lower than the State average (20%). However, the proportion of Cork City residents travelling to work, school or college by foot or bicycle is 34%, being double the national average. These statistics reflect both the concentrated nature and sustainable potential of the city and need for greater use and investment in public transport infrastructure servicing the greater Cork region. Of the 63,807 jobs located in the city, 39% of employees live in the city and over 58% live in the rest of County Cork. Just over 2% travel from Waterford, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary. Of the 41,845 working persons living in Cork City, over 59% work in the city, 23% work in Cork county, over 6% are mobile workers and less than 1 % work in Dublin, Kerry of Limerick. Between 2005 and 2012, there was an average of 629 road collisions per annum in Cork City, with 87.3% being minor in nature.
Quality Of Place
“For him this is Cork. But for us it is only ‘the flat of the city.’ What of the hill- sides? Go but three steps up any of those old-time, wide-sweeping, treeless, cloud- shadowed hills and you find yourself even at midday in a silence that grows on you.”
Daniel Corkery; The Threshold of Quiet, p3
Quality of Place - Policy
The importance of creating a high quality of place is reflected by the numerous national publications delivering a series of policies and guidance on how best to deliver high quality urban areas, neighbourhoods and sustainable communities. The Department of Environment, Community and Local Government has published a set of guidance documents including; Delivering Homes Sustaining Communities (2007) , Quality Housing for Sustainable Communities (2007), Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments (2007), Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas (2009), Urban Design Manual A Best Practice Guide (2009), Government Policy on Architecture (2009) and Appropriate Assessment of Plans and Projects – Guidance for Planning Authorities (2009 ). The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport’s (DTTAS) strategy for tourism growth,
Transportation and Communications - Stats and Facts
MORE THAN ONE IN THREE PEOPLE LIVING IN CORK CITY WALK OR CYCLE TO WORK,
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