[Leading Cork to take its place as a World Class City] __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Street Furniture Licences: A total of 146 street furniture licences were granted by Cork City Council in 2021, which was a direct result of initiatives to address the Covid-19 pandemic in Cork City.
Event Licences: Covid had a significant impact on the granting of Licences for events with audiences in excess of 5,000 attendees in 2021 in Cork City. Lockdowns and restrictions on public gatherings, meant that a number of concerts planned for Irish Independent Park and Páirc Uí Chaoimh, along with the Cork Summer Show were re-scheduled to 2022. This meant that the public have to wait a little longer to experience such acts as Lewis Capaldi, Gerry Cinnamon, David Gray, The Script, Picture This, Dermot Kennedy, The Chemical Brothers, Westlife as well as the annual Laya City Spectacular, the Cork Summer Show and newly announced concerts such as Ed Sheeran and Elton John. Covid-19 and the Planning Function : The delivery of the planning function was deemed an essential service throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Planning Development Management responded to the need to continue to provide a planning service by rethinking some of the ways in which that service was delivered. Amongst the changes that were implemented in 2020, which continued throughout 2021 allowing us to deliver a full planning service were: • Operating an appointment only service for the planning counter, including recording of contact details for contact tracing. • Setting up of dedicated email addresses for ease of communications with various sections. • Increase of email and telephone interaction with the public. • Improvement of website content. • Acceptance of planning submissions/observations online. • Operating a “customer not present” payment system to take payments over the phone by credit/debit card • Changes to how site inspections were to be carried out. • An increase in the use of Teams Meetings for pre-planning meetings, Strategic Housing Development (SHD) tripartite meetings, etc.
This was all done whilst facilitating remote working to ensure the safety of all staff within the Department.
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