An important one for Bandon residents
Posted on April 1, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon.
The bandon.ie blog has an important post about the Action Plan for the improvement of Bandon town centre. They have full details on what it’s all about but the critical bit is having your say. Let the consultants who are drawing up the proposals know what you think should be done to improve the town. Some off the top of my head are:
- Finish the bypass (I know I know, this isn’t in their remit)
- Improved street lighting, particularly on bypass
- Extended footpaths on all major routes out of town
- Changing junction priorities
- Traffic lights at top of Glasslyn
- Removal of some right turns in the town
- Better bus stops
- Encouraging the owners of all the land on Glasslyn to develop it
- Encouraging a new commercial indoor play area
- Presenting Bandon as a great location for hi-tech biz. Lower cost that Cork City and only 30 mins from the airport. I’m afraid Laragh doesn’t cut it. Some EI subsidised units in town or maybe a hotdesking facility like they have in Macroom
- Presenting Bandon as a full-service town for people moving to Cork. In particular the great schools and sports facilities
- Presenting Bandon as a great location for high-end restaurants. If Otto and Casino House can be huge successes in the middle of nowhere, why can’t we have high end places here?
- A toll for trucks that go through town, particularly those destroying North Main Street that could easily go via Baxter’s Bridge
- A major revamp of the North side of town with an effort to get more retail businesses and doing something about ease of parking. Revamp of The Shambles should only be the beginning.
So get over to the bandon.ie blog and let the consultants know what you think!
6 Replies to "An important one for Bandon residents"
Conor O'Neill on April 2, 2008
Totally agree about the river. They made a good point in The Opinion a while back about the town originally being designed “the wrong way around”. Everything faced away from the river instead of towards it.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have some cafes etc with open-air sections facing on to the river? Given that there is no real opportunity to do that on the west side of the bridge, how about some visionary land-owner transforming all the river-side land at Glasslyn into something special? Welcome people to the town instead of showing them shut-down garages and knackered buildings? Or is it being hoarded to flog to the County Council at some stage?
The whole Watergate junction could be solved by a new bridge before Bandon but I think we’ll all be very old before that happens. Unless some visionary landowner………….
Manicmammy on April 2, 2008
Agree about the awful location of the post office and the awkwardness in accessing it.
In addition to the above points, I would love somewhere decent off the main roads to go for family walks where possibly the kids could cycle their bikes safely and I could push a buggy too.
Conor O'Neill on April 2, 2008
The “walk” thing is a major problem in West Cork. There is a chronic lack of footpaths or tracks anywhere.
Even something as simple as walking from Rathbarry to Long Strand involves taking your life in your hands.
The so-called walk in Kilbrittain is ankle-breaking stuff and the other one at the river is for big welly-wearers only.
What has the council got against families having a walk? Even the lovely walk to Courtmac is ruined by the stench. Slí na sláinte?
Whilst I believe she is not well recently, wouldn’t it be wonderful if some walks through Castlebernard were agreed between Lady Bandon and the council? There is access from several points on the edge of town.
JD on April 15, 2008
I find the litter in Bandon terrible. Is there Litter wardens in the area? Bandon has a lot going for it and we have enjoyed our almost 2 years here but living in Kibrogan we are driven to distraction by litter and I have to say the kids in the nearby school are the biggest culprits. I see a council employee regularly pushing a cart up the hill and out the road picking up the rubbish (and doing an excellent job) but he must be soul-destroyed by the blatant littering. It’d be great if something more proactive was done about this. We enjoy the buzz in Main St on a Sat afternoon but the abandon-car parking policy is crazy…and unsafe.
On a positive note I’d like to congratulate those who were in charge of putting up and maintaining the Christmas lights, they were great.
Conor O'Neill on April 15, 2008
Have to agree about litter, it’s really obvious at the minute.
I was disgusted this morning as I sat in a queue of traffic in Old Chapel and saw someone throw a big wrapper out the window just as they drove off. I haven’t seen that level of backward fuckwittery in a long time.
I did drive past a bunch of people doing their tidytowns stuff this evening. Good on em, they’re actually doing something about it.
Nick on April 2, 2008
A post about improving Bandon town centre on April Fool’s day?? Anyway , that aside , we have a fantastic amenity in the Bandon river flowing through the town and precious little opportunity to enjoy it , walkways , green areas etc. How about movingt the post office to somewhere more easily accessible and doing something with traffic turning right into Watergate street.