No-cycling advice ‘reflects poorly’ on Páirc Uí Chaoimh
A cycling advocacy group has said a warning that those going to the Liam Miller tribute match should not cycle to Páirc Uí Chaoimh “reflects very poorly” on the stadium.
The Cork Cycling Campaign repeated its call for the GAA’s Cork County Board to install more bike stands at the stadium, and questioned why the requirement to have 100 parking spaces for bikes at Páirc Uí Chaoimh has yet to be met.
The advice coming from the match organisers and gardaí was that attendees should leave their bikes at home on the day.
“There are minimal cycling spots here currently,” said Patrick Doyle, commercial manager at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
“I would say the encouragement would be not to cycle on the day, to be honest. When you have 45,000 people here, actually getting a bike down here physically would be challenging.
“Similarly, when people are exiting, bikes could actually end up causing a hindrance, but I would defer to gardaí on that.”
Gardaí at the briefing echoed the comments, and said bikes chained against fences and spots around the stadium could prove problematic from an event management and health and safety point of view.
Dean Venables of the Cork Cycling Campaign said the group had called on stadium management to install 1,000 spaces for cyclists at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, well in excess of what was required in planning.
“The planning permission for the stadium stated that there should be 100 stands, but that has not been implemented and our question is why?” he said.
Mr Venables said that the lack of such provisions feeds into broader problems surrounding events at Páirc Uí Chaoimh — namely the traffic congestion and illegal parking that occurs in the stadium’s environs when it is hosting a match or event.
“Cycling should be seen as a solution to this, and it should be possible to cycle to the stadium,” Mr Venables said.
“If properly located, bike stands will not be a hindrance.”
Mr Venables said the campaign had not yet contacted City Hall to ask why the 100 bike stands provided for in the planning permission have yet to be installed at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, but that it may be something the group would consider in future.
“The lack of stands disregards the requirements to put up the stadium; it disregards the traffic concerns of locals; it disregards the environment and it reflects very poorly on the stadium,” he said.
Last month, the IBike Cork group cycled en masse to Páirc Uí Chaoimh on public Coke Bikes as part of a campaign calling for an expansion of the scheme beyond the city centre.
