fitzgeralds park run by idiots

lolosaur

Do we all know abput the current retardation going on within the city.

This amazed me.

The park is currently getting done up.
Most of you will know about the controversial skygarden, awaird winning chelsea showpiece from chelsea flower show by diarmuid gavin which was commissioned by the park.

It was meant to be suspended in the air but the council felt the garden should be at a height of 2ft for health and safety. (SKY garden). So gavin refused to work with the project amd it looks like a love seat shoved in by the river now.

Next up we have the 15k worth of plants they bought for it. Builders thought they were weeds and dumped a load of rubble in on top of them.

These same builders were the cowboys hired from poland to refurbish the fountain. They used the wrong concrete for pounting. TThy broke the top part of the fountain and 3/4 the way through the build fecked off cause they hadnt a clue what they were doing.

Next up we have the new band stand. A beautiful white arc, totally out of place and character with the park has been erected where the old sensory garden was in front of the meuseum. They are currently on their third attempt at laying this as they have twice used the wrong type of concrete to hold the structure.

There is a public toilet in the park. One of those tardis looking phone box ones with the sliding door. Its not in use though because some young one got locked into it. Closed for 2 years now.

Lastly for now, they have erected a new 16k wall along where the parks storage yard is by the public toilet/security gard hut is. This wall is lovely but the thing is the house behind it owns that land and had let them use it as she was not using it at the time. They have had it for about 15 years now. So they have built a lovely wall for her for free. Shee is now talking about pushing them out due to the distress caused from building works. Free wall though! Yay!!

Complete shambles. I cant condone this crap on any level. Just money wasted. And then you see the bike lane crap going on in the city and I just want to punch someone hard in the face.

Dannyboy83

So on the one had, you have the Sky Garden designed to be suspended in the air but the council objected to the actual design due to health and safety.

Then on the other hand, Guards object to concrete island in Washington street and completely ****erUppery of layout and Health & Safety Concerns. That goes ahead anyway.

lolosaur

It is unbelievable. It really is.

I want to march down to city hall and throw the lot of the incompetant buffoons out.

how can anyone mess up so badly.


It's a good job neil prendiville is back.

opus

Yeah it does seem like an unholy mess for sure. Coincidently I was was out for a jog in the area yesterday & took a wander in there to have a look, snapped a pic of the yoke itself. Hard to believe how much cash has been sunk into it

run_Forrest_run

good to see our property tax is being well spent :rolleyes:

lolosaur

i could make that outr of a couple of planks of wood and some bars for a fraction of the 1.25 million (i think) they bought it for

Dannyboy83

They're getting slammed today in the Examiner:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/sarsfield-road-a-financial-roundabout-263738.html

A report into one of the largest local authorities in the country has revealed significant concern with how it is managing its finances.

The Local Government Audit Service said there were weaknesses across a range of areas within Cork City Council.

..

According to the management letter, 73% of purchase orders in 2012, accounting for €45m of spending, were non-compliant with proper procedures. Most purchase orders were approved on the same day as the transaction or after it.

This was despite the May 2011 work by the internal auditors on this bad habit.

More than two years later, in August 2013, 64% of all purchase orders were approved on the same day or after a sale deal was made.

Likewise, Mr Daly’s latest criticisms on a lack of response to internal auditors had echoes of his unit’s commentary from a year earlier.

In late 2012, the audit on Cork City referred to a 2010 commitment by senior managers to review the status of recommendations made in audit reports published between 2007 and 2010. In 2012, the review had still not been completed.

Our own little Sochi by the sounds of it.

lolosaur

right, well they are clearly incompetant and i want them removed from office.

How do i go about doing this with immediate effect?

upstairs for coffee

Follow the money and the truth will appear

pwurple

lolosaur wrote: »

right, well they are clearly incompetant and i want them removed from office.

How do i go about doing this with immediate effect?

Run for election yourself!

Dannyboy83

Damn near impossible to remove an elected official from office in Ireland, even when a tribunal says they are guilty of Malfeasance.

The local elections are on May 24th tho iirc.

I would like to see a negative publicity campaign
To be able to associate a face with a **** up

e.g. This is the fool who destroyed Washington street

officer butterman

can one person take down the entire incompetence ring?

It would be like John mclane in die hard but would bumbling fu**wits everywhere.

things cant go on like this, they just cant.

pissing money up against a wall repeatedly. and we let it happen.

Roger Hassenforder

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

good to see our property tax is being well spent :rolleyes:

Your property tax went into the setting up of irish water, and give them some starting capital.
Thank you fine gael

run_Forrest_run

lolosaur wrote: »

right, well they are clearly incompetant and i want them removed from office.

How do i go about doing this with immediate effect?

nothing happens with 'immediate effect' in our public sector.
But as someone said, running for election is probably the most proactive thing you can do.

AugustusMinimus

This woman (Laura McGonigle) wasted over €1m removing the Well Road roundabout for no reason. All its done is created extra traffic for no reason. Consider not voting for her and giving her grief if she ever calls to your doorstep. I know I will.



Councillors seem to think they don't actually have to represent their constituencies but are instead given free reign to do what they want. Unbelievable. :mad:

Triangla

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

This woman (Laura McGonigle) wasted over €1m removing the Well Road roundabout for no reason. All its done is created extra traffic for no reason. Consider not voting for her and giving her grief if she ever calls to your doorstep. I know I will.



Councillors seem to think they don't actually have to represent their constituencies but are instead given free reign to do what they want. Unbelievable. :mad:

You could at the very least back that up by linking at least one source.

AugustusMinimus

http://lauramcgonigle.ie/2012/06/skehard-road-realignment-scheme/

pwurple

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

This woman (Laura McGonigle) wasted over €1m removing the Well Road roundabout for no reason. All its done is created extra traffic for no reason. Consider not voting for her and giving her grief if she ever calls to your doorstep. I know I will.

Councillors seem to think they don't actually have to represent their constituencies but are instead given free reign to do what they want. Unbelievable. :mad:

Agreed, but judging by her behaviour in council meetings, i can't see her dragging her eyes off her phone long enough to call to many doors.

lolosaur

and we havent even touched on the o flynns yet!!!!

rob316

opus wrote: »

Yeah it does seem like an unholy mess for sure. Coincidently I was was out for a jog in the area yesterday & took a wander in there to have a look, snapped a pic of the yoke itself. Hard to believe how much cash has been sunk into it

Jesus that is ****ing ugly. How much is that costing us?

lolosaur

rob316 wrote: »

Jesus that is ****ing ugly. How much is that costing us?

Last purchase order put in by the council was for 300 million euro.

Ludo

lolosaur wrote: »

Last purchase order put in by the council was for 300 million euro.

:eek:
Tell me that is a typo!!!!!!

whisky_galore

lolosaur wrote: »

Last purchase order put in by the council was for 300 million euro.

wft? For that crock of crap?

Triangla

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

http://lauramcgonigle.ie/2012/06/skehard-road-realignment-scheme/

She mentions it on her site (along with a ton of other stuff) which hardly makes her responsible for the works.

I'm not sure who in the council is in charge but that Well Road on to Douglas section is just the pits.

Triangla

And back on topic, I must check out Fitzgeralds Park next time I'm home.

It looks crazy, what nut bags signed off on that?

Milly33

sickening isn't it!! Bunch of tools they are. Really disappointed in Laura I thought she would do some good. Grew up not to far from her and really thought she would do something with her post but nope if that roundie is anything to judge. She doesn't live close to that area also so how did she come up with that the roundie was causing delays!! she would not have been a local local..

Garden is a disgrace to the council All the places that could have done with that money.. And why didn't they contract local aswell that's another thing that annoys me

pwurple

Triangla wrote: »

She mentions it on her site (along with a ton of other stuff) which hardly makes her responsible for the works.

I'm not sure who in the council is in charge but that Well Road on to Douglas section is just the pits.

Well she was certainly claiming it as all her idea at the time. "Most intelligent trafic light system" etc. Is she doing some political weasling out if it now or something?

evilivor

rob316 wrote: »

Jesus that is ****ing ugly. How much is that costing us?

Budgeted for €2.3m - "80% of the funding coming from Fáilte Ireland, and Cork City Council making up the remainder."

thomas anderson.

Alarm was raised at the attitude of the various departments in City Hall to audit reports; the skills available to implement recommendations; and the effort to enforce this among the frontline spending departments.

lolosaur

thomas anderson. wrote: »

Alarm was raised at the attitude of the various departments in City Hall to audit reports; the skills available to implement recommendations; and the effort to enforce this among the frontline spending departments.

you can shorten that scentence.

"nobody knows what they are doing in city hall"

lostinsuperfunk

Not everything posted on this thread is correct.

Let's not get carried away, 20% of €2.3m is €460,000. The price tag for the garden is not €300m, which is almost twice the entire budget for CCC in 2014.
Still too much money in my opinion, but there's a big difference.

The public toilet in Fitzgerald's Park has not been continuously closed for the past two years. It's never been closed when I've passed (at least 20 times over that period).

http://www.eveningecho.ie/2014/01/23/sky-garden-hits-snag-wrong-concrete-used-construction/

lolosaur

lostinsuperfunk wrote: »

Not everything posted on this thread is correct.

Let's not get carried away, 20% of €2.3m is €460,000. The price tag for the garden is not €300m, which is almost twice the entire budget for CCC in 2014.
Still too much money in my opinion, but there's a big difference.

The public toilet in Fitzgerald's Park has not been continuously closed for the past two years. It's never been closed when I've passed (at least 20 times over that period).

http://www.eveningecho.ie/2014/01/23/sky-garden-hits-snag-wrong-concrete-used-construction/

Thats the Security cabin. your not meant to go to the toilet in there.

300 million is a proposterous figure. the fact that people were not sure if it is accurate or not would mean that either the people are out of touch with the spending going on or that the spending going on is so inept that nobody has a donkeys bo***x what is happening at all.

who_me

lolosaur wrote: »

Thats the Security cabin. your not meant to go to the toilet in there.

300 million is a proposterous figure. the fact that people were not sure if it is accurate or not would mean that either the people are out of touch with the spending going on or that the spending going on is so inept that nobody has a donkeys bo***x what is happening at all.

We do know that €300m is inaccurate, as that one cost alone is about twice the Council's entire budget for the year. They have the cost listed as €2.4m.

Hibs Hearts run FR33

lolosaur wrote: »

There is a public toilet in the park. One of those tardis looking phone box ones with the sliding door. Its not in use though because some young one got locked into it. Closed for 2 years now.
.

hope she's all-right...

whisky_galore

lolosaur wrote: »

Thats the Security cabin. your not meant to go to the toilet in there.

Doesn't stop some folk after a skinfull.

Markcheese

I know everyone likes to blame the city council for everything but... There's a difference between the councilors (useless shower full of hot air who can be replaced at election time with an equally useless shower) and city council (the officials,some on eye watering salaries,who are also a useless shower but CAN'T be voted out...and who hold the real power)
And yes the city getting behind skygarden was stupid, they couldn't suspend it from a crane permanently , Gavin wouldn't agree to it being on high steel legs(plus how would gardeners get up to maintain it safely , and it's pointless at ground level.. Dopes ..

On the plus side new cafe opens on monday

whisky_galore

Markcheese wrote: »

And yes the city getting behind skygarden was stupid, they couldn't suspend it from a crane permanently , Gavin wouldn't agree to it being on high steel legs(plus how would gardeners get up to maintain it safely , and it's pointless at ground level.. Dopes ..

Someone must have gotten a hard-on for the sky garden and wanted it for Cork, at any cost. Very easy to spend someone else's money.

twowheelsonly

Triangla wrote: »

She mentions it on her site (along with a ton of other stuff) which hardly makes her responsible for the works.

I'm not sure who in the council is in charge but that Well Road on to Douglas section is just the pits.

She was the one who was pushing it and making all the noise about it at the time.

whisky_galore wrote: »

Someone must have gotten a hard-on for the sky garden and wanted it for Cork, at any cost. Very easy to spend someone else's money.

But it's going to attract 200 million tourists a year
At least they won't have to strain their necks looking up into the sky. Hope they don't trip over it though!!

Technophobia

This is a real shame. This is where I spend my childhood, my teens etc. Its where I took my kids even though we didnt live near because of the memories it held for me.

Its been a few years now since I went. I am sorry to see it go to the dogs.

STEINBERG

A bunch of cronies running this country so it only works its way down into local councils,,,,, no accountability nothing of the like,,, lets just waste money ans sure if it done work we will try something new....

I tell ya one thing when the TD comes knocking on my door for votes he and his heavies will be told under no uncertain terms where the feck to go

BillJ

Technophobia wrote: »

This is a real shame. This is where I spend my childhood, my teens etc. Its where I took my kids even though we didnt live near because of the memories it held for me.

Its been a few years now since I went. I am sorry to see it go to the dogs.

How can you say it's gone to the dogs if you haven't been there for a few years?

It's actually still quite a nice park, regardless of the way money is being spent on it.

deRanged

I went for a look at the Sky Garden at the weekend. I think it'll turn out really nice.

Knob Longman

lolosaur wrote: »

i could make that outr of a couple of planks of wood and some bars for a fraction of the 1.25 million (i think) they bought it for

Ye knew what ye would be getting when ye paid it, No point crying over spilled Milk now..

whisky_galore

BillJ wrote: »

It's actually still quite a nice park, regardless of the way money is being spent on it.

Yeah, that makes it all ok. Getting a nice Mini for the price of a Ferarri.

BillJ

whisky_galore wrote: »

Yeah, that makes it all ok. Getting a nice Mini for the price of a Ferarri.

You're taking my quote out of context. The person I was responding to said it was a pity it had gone to the dogs, which it hasn't. It's still a nice park.

So anyway go on tell me how much they spent and what exactly they spent it on?

I'm not defending how this whole project has been undertaken and how the money was spent but before people come on here making unfounded remarks and pulling figures out of the air they should do a bit of research.

Markcheese

I still think it's a great park as well , jammed full of weird stuff and a bit if a mish mash but that's part of it ...
I wouldn't blame the skygarden on the park, reckon they had it foisted on them and will make the best of it ..

Dannyboy83

BillJ wrote: »

So anyway go on tell me how much they spent and what exactly they spent it on?

That's not entirely possible because the City Council don't seem to know themselves:

WRONG CONCRETE USED IN CONSTRUCTION
The €2.3m Sky Garden project in Fitzgerald Park has hit another problem this month after a construction error meant a large concrete plinth had to be dug up and replaced.

It is not known how much it will cost to replace the plinth but the Council spokesperson insisted the taxpayer will not face any increased costs and the project would not be delayed.

The entire budget for the Mardyke Gardens was €2.3m, with 80% of the funding coming from Fáilte Ireland, and Cork City Council making up the remainder.

But we are aware of some of the waste

CITY’S 6K A MONTH BILL FOR SKY GARDEN PLANTS

IT IS costing 6,000 euro per month just to store and maintain the trees and plants that will form part of the Sky Garden at Fitzgerald Park.

leahyl

Was in Fitzgeralds Park today - the area of the park with the 'Sky Garden' looks very nice, with the new natural foods bakery open and a large seating area outside, it'll be lovely once all the diggers and workmen have vacated it....

The area with the childrens playground though is very run down I think. Are they doing up the whole park, bit by bit, or is it just the area by the Sky Garden?

kub

Roger Hassenforder wrote: »

Your property tax went into the setting up of irish water, and give them some starting capital.
Thank you fine gael

Just to set the record straight. After Fianna Fail destroyed our economy they agreed to implement Water charges and Property Tax with the Troika. Fine Gael just had to abide by that agreement.

What i find particularly interesting is the fact that a lot of estates which were built during the boom already had the necessary man holes for water meters outside the houses. So this has been in the planning for a long time.

Padraig Mor

kub wrote: »

What i find particularly interesting is the fact that a lot of estates which were built during the boom already had the necessary man holes for water meters outside the houses. So this has been in the planning for a long time.

They're not even using those (we have one) - they're putting new ones in.

evilivor

Have to say, the park looks splendid today. The front lawn and bandstand area is really nice and, as for the Skygarden, the kids seemed to like it. Terrific atmosphere down there.