Higgins relinquishes the stewardship of Cork

`A Corkman is the only man who can get homesick in his own city," Cork city manager Jack Higgins once observed. With characteristic good humour, he was adroitly negotiating the sensitive issue of whether he was a southsider or northsider, having been born near City Hall but raised in Gurranabraher.

Today, as he steps down from the stewardship of his native city after five years overseeing Cork's growth, Jack Higgins can feel proud that the southern capital is a place both northsiders and southsiders can justifiably feel homesick about.

Mr Higgins, at 63, is handing over management of a city on the brink of far-reaching developments.

While the proposed shopping and housing complex in Mahon has been chronicled in some detail over the past week, an equally far-reaching but less charted ambition is for the development of the docks area.

"I believe that effectively from the City Hall down, there is a substantial area that should be seriously looked at for a docks development programme," he says.

"All the major port cities in Europe have seen a drift down towards the mouth of the harbour - the old docklands areas in London and Dublin have both been effectively redeveloped into vibrant, living areas.

"That move down the harbour is happening here too with Ringaskiddy, with the result that the old docks area, which comes right up almost to the city centre, has the potential for conversion to alternative uses which would be economically more beneficial to their owners than their existing use," he adds.

Mr Higgins instances the tip of Morrison's Island. While the fine, cut-limestone bonded warehouse is rightly the subject of a preservation order, he nonetheless believes the area could take a moderate high-rise development if it was sympathetically integrated. Already Mr Higgins has established a team of corporation officials under assistant city manager Dan Buggy to open negotiations with property owners to devise a programme for the docks.

"We've made a general offer that if somebody wanted assistance in the site assembly to bring about a desirable development and if they were to acquire a substantial portion of an area by agreement, we would help with our compulsory purchase powers in clearing title and getting a utilisable area for redevelopment," he says.

While the development of the docks may still seem distant, work on the £120 million main drainage system is well advanced. Completion of the scheme, including construction of the treatment works at Carrigrennan in Little Island, is expected by late 2002 or early 2003.

"The prospect of digging up all those streets in the city centre has been like an albatross around our necks. We couldn't really go in and tackle them but now the main drainage scheme work is proceeding apace and that will make a major difference to the water quality in the Lee and improve it as an amenity.

"The river, especially at low tide, is not a pretty sight. One of the difficulties is that there is a large tidal surge in the Lee and one of the things I would like to see investigated is whether a barrage could be put in place which would retain water at a particular level on the two channels that would allow navigation around the island.

"In some ways it's tied up with redevelopment of the docks - the drift of shipping downstream to Ringaskiddy would have to be accelerated but I've no doubt there may be engineering solutions to that as well. They've done a very good job using a barrage on the waterfront in Belfast, for example, and an area that was rather stagnant has been transformed into a beautiful vista," he said.

Mr Higgins is also confident that a northern ring route alleviating traffic congestion around Shanakiel, Hollyhill and Blarney Street will be completed within five years, as work is already in progress on identifying a suitable line over the north-west escarpment.

Providing proper transportation for the city prompts the question: how can the corporation plan for the city when, in many cases, residential and industrial development has spread beyond the county borough boundary and now falls into the ambit of Cork County Council?

"I'm convinced that, with the best will in the world, a county authority cannot plan adequately for the suburbs of a city without having control of the hub, the city centre, while the converse also applies, in that plans for a city centre can often be frustrated by a different policy being adopted by a county authority," he replies.

He believes strongly that there is a compelling argument for the creation of one planning authority for the greater Cork area, which he identifies as including the city centre and suburbs and extending to satellites such as Carrigaline, Ballincollig, Tower/Blarney and Glanmire/Riverstown.

"That was what was proposed by the Cork Land Use and Transportation Study over 20 years ago and places like Blarney, Ballincollig and Carrigaline are now effectively within the city's remit. It would be logical to have them covered, along with the city and suburbs, by a greater Cork area planning authority," he says.

After 45 years in local government, including seven years as Limerick city manager, Jack Higgins identifies moves to beautify Cork city as being an important part of his legacy.

"Thankfully I can point to developments in both Cork and Limerick of which I'm modestly proud. In Cork, I would pick out beautifying the city in areas like Maylor Street and North Main Street and more recently Emmet Place, which provides a first-class plaza, a type of space which was previously lacking in the city.

"I'm also delighted that the rather elaborate plans we have for the upgrading of Patrick Street and the Grand Parade by Beth Gali are being brought to fruition. I'm sorry I won't there to see them finalised but I'll be taking an active interest to see how it turns out.

"But that's the nature of our job. You get to complete some of the projects that other managers have initiated. I was very proud to be involved in the completion of the good work of my predecessors in bringing the Lee Tunnel to finality; that, too, would be something I'm proud of.

"Of course, the converse is that you don't see the end of some of the projects you start yourself. There's always a tinge of regret in that but cities are vibrant places, they're growing and evolving and it's important that Cork city continues to beautify itself to make itself more attractive, because ultimately you're in competition for investment, visitors and conferences not just with other Irish cities but with cities across Europe."