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During 2008, Local Government faced substantial change due to the economic downturn and Cork County Council will continue to be affected by a very difficult financial environment for a number of years.
Over the last five years, Cork County Council responded to the challenge of rapid growth through the delivery of major infrastructure programmes, expansion in the demand for services and the ever increasing regulatory environment.
Cork County Council has coped very well during the period of rapid growth and the management and staff are committed to finding efficiencies across all services in order to maintain a high level of customer service within the resources available. We will continue to deliver efficiencies through restructuring, detailed service reviews and the use of technology and staff commitment tomodernisation.
In 2008, the Council's revenue and capital turnover was in the order of €714 million with revenue expenditure totalling €348 million. Significant levels of maintenance work and improvements were again carried out on the county roads network totalling over €110 million. Rapid progress was made on the construction of the N8 Fermoy-Mitchelstown Scheme and the advance planning of the M20 Cork-Limerick Motorway scheme during the year. The Water Services Investment Programme of designing, procuring and constructing major
water and wastewater facilities for Cork was significantly advanced during 2008. Eight schemes were completed during the year and construction commenced on ten major schemes marking a total spend of over €70 million. There are increasing demands for higher quality standards and more extensive monitoring of our water services while funding is failing to keep pace with these requirements. The metering of all non-domestic
properties was completed in 2008 with usage now based on metered consumption giving more accurate billing for our non domestic customers. These customers have improved their consumption management and bills have accordingly reduced. The commissioning of a new water quality laboratory at Inniscarra was also completed in 2008.
The management of the Council's waste continues to be a challenge. The refuse collection service and recycling facilities have undergone significant operation review during 2008. The main areas of activity are the collection and disposal of waste, operation and maintenance of the Council's landfill sites and recycling facilities. With nine Civic Amenity Sites in operation and two under construction, this service has become increasingly popular with the public and the current 11 sites will ensure 85% of all households are within 20km of a centre in County Cork.
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