Cork's nomination some months ago as European City of Culture for 2005 was greeted with much fanfare and the expectation that the award would be accompanied by money from the Exchequer for a complete revamp of St Patrick's Street.
With the help of international consultants, the plan was to give the somewhat jaded old thoroughfare a new look befitting the second city of the Republic. The Government, however. has refused to make funds available, but Cork will have its new look anyway, through a combination of borrowing and cutbacks in other areas.
When Beth Gali, the renowned urban landscape artist, came to Cork to design a new St Patrick's Street and Grand Parade three years ago, the cost of the project was estimated at £7 million (€8.89 million). At today's prices the cost will be over €16 million.
Cork Corporation has achieved many innovative and worthwhile changes in the character of the city under its plan for inner-city renewal. But by far the most ambitious, and the one which would have been most obvious to visitors and Corkonians alike, was the grand design for a make-over of St Patrick's Street and the Grand Parade.
The new design was to be the linchpin of a greater plan for a revitalised docks area - one of the biggest urban renewal projects proposed in the State, which will give the city a new wing to the east over the next two decades.
In an election year the planners were confident the scheme would be seen as a one-off by the Department of Finance and that given the huge effort which went into Cork's campaign for the European City of Culture award, the national kudos which would accrue would be factored in.
However, from the McCreevy Budget on, the signs were that, whatever its merits, the proposal would be one of the casualties of straitened national circumstances. If Cork wanted a new look it would have to find the money from other sources.
It looks now as if the Grand Parade section will be put on hold, but, despite the setback, Cork city manager Mr Joe Gavin intends to see the project through.He told The Irish Times work would begin at the end of the month or in the first week of May and would involve the corporation financing €7.62 million of the cost through borrowings. The remainder will be found by diverting funds from other projects.