An article in the Evening Echo during the week covered the current situation with the Tramore Valley Park. It went on to state the following facts...
1) Approx 40 million Euro has been spent on the Tramore Valley Park to date.
2) A very successful 5k parkrun was held in the park back in 2015 before it had to be cancelled because it couldn't handle the number of cars.
3) The park closes at 4pm on weekdays meaning there no access to the pitches or the BMX bike track during the long Summer evenings.
At the moment, the issue seems to be one of funding as the park needs to be staffed when it's open.
A Cork City Council spokesman said the following: “A number of activities including use of the BMX track, the playing pitch, small school events currently take place at Tramore Valley Park. However, it is not open for unrestricted public use. A number of further capital works need to be carried out, and funding identified for an operational budget prior to any opening. However, it is envisaged that the Park will be open by mid 2018.”
On the subject of parkruns, they said... “The City Council did previously work with parkrun to facilitate a number of parkruns at Tramore Valley Park and part funded these runs. However, due to the huge numbers attending the event and travelling by car, the event had to be discontinued on health and safety grounds as runners were parking nearby off Kinsale Road and attempting to cross numerous traffic lanes on the extremely busy South City Link Road. Other venues were explored by Council officials with parkrun but were not deemed suitable due to similar parking problems, size of paths within parks, impact on other park users etc. It is planned to have Tramore Valley Park open next year, and it may be possible to accommodate further parkrun events at that stage.”
We've heard all this before so don't hold your breath. The Tramore Valley Park has been opening 'next year' for the last few years so this time may well be no different.
Nothing is going to happen unless someone makes it a priority. You can find a list of Cork City Councillors HERE if you want to make your feelings known. No doubt, many will have Facebook pages as well so you can post the link to the Evening Echo article there and ask what are they doing about it.
Addendum... The first 5k in the Tramore Valley Park was held in November 2011. Six years have now nearly passed since that date and the park is still closed.
