MONEY from the sale of Cork County Council's waste collection service should be used to build a new civic amenity site for the Fermoy area. The council this week confirmed the sale of the service to Castletownroche-based County Clean Recycling Ltd for a sum believed to be in the region of €6.5 million.

It is estimated that the council will make a further saving of €3.5 million on operating costs in relation to the service over the next two-years.

The mayor of Fermoy, Fine Gael Cork county councillor Patrick O'Driscoll said that this €10 million war chest should now be ringfenced by the local authority to cover the cost of future waste disposal and environmental projects across the county.

"The most obvious of these would be a new civic amenity site for the Fermoy and Mitchelstown area. Particularly given the fact that the region is the only one in Cork without its own recycling facility," said Cllr O'Driscoll.

In 2008 Cork County Council confirmed that it had entered negotiations with a local landowner with a view to purchasing a site for an amenity site close to the town.

It is believed that the council were in the final stages of agreeing the purchase of the site at Corrin, which had been used as a depot by the NRA during the construction of the Fermoy bypass.

At the time it was believed that the facility would be up and running by the end of last year.

However, in late 2008, county manager Martin Riordan announced a review of the rollout of amenity sites across the county, meaning that the Fermoy facility was put on hold.

In July 2009 it emerged that the project had been put on hold permanently due to a lack of funding.

Cllr O'Driscoll said that some of the money the council will realise through the sale of the collection service should be set aside for the construction of an amenity site for the greater Fermoy area.

He estimated that the cost of buying the land and constructing the facility would be in the region of €3 million.

"The bottom line is that we have been promised this facility for years and yet we are still waiting. I believe the main stumbling block was financing the facility. With the money now at the council's disposal they could afford to build the facility with change to spare," said Cllr O'Driscoll.

"As I understand it the council were within a week of buying the site at Corrin when the project was put on hold. One can therefore assume that it has already been deemed suitable for an amenity site by the council. I know that the landowner is still very interested in selling the site to the local authority," he added.

Cllr O'Driscoll said he intended to raise the issue at the next monthly meeting of the council's northern committee.

"We have the perfect opportunity to build an amenity facility on what is an ideal geographical site within easy reach of many towns and villages in the area," he said.

"The increased incidents of illegal dumping in the area would indicate just how badly this facility is needed," he added.

The Corkman put Cllr O'Driscoll's idea to a senior figure within the council who said it was too early to say how the money would be spent.

- BILL BROWNE