#corkharbour - Set to open on Haulbowline Island in Cork Harbour, is a public park despite warnings in a 2017 report that chemical contamination at the island’s former steel site has the potential to cause risks to users of a future park.

Now home to the Irish Naval Service, the GreenNews.ie reports that Haulbowline formerly housed the Irish Steel plant in the centre of the island from the late 1930s until its closure in 2001.

Over a 40-year period, 650,000 cubic metres of by-products and waste from the steelworks were deposited on a nine-hectare shallow sand spit on the island known as the East Tip.

Cork County Council was appointed as an agent for the Minister for Agriculture to oversee the regularisation of the site.

The East Tip has now been regenerated and is slated to open as a public park shortly, featuring playing pitches, walkways, cycleways, and over 200 trees and wildflower areas.

Much more on this story can be read here.