New signage at the entrance of the greenway
Sign of the times !
Category: Great Southern Trail
Community Orchard
Are you interested in helping develop a linear orchard consisting of Community Heritage Orchard, Soft Fruit Garden and Nuttery along the urban section of the Tralee to Fenit Greenway. The proposed site is a strip of scrub land which runs along the east side of the route between the Rock Street entrance and the access point to St. Brendans Park and Connolly Park.
The project aims reconnect with nature through food, landscape and community, to provide an example of how we can introduce food back into the urban landscape and increase local food security, through relearning the art of growing our own food.
If you are interested in getting involved please contact: orchard@traleefenitgreenway.com or see the Community Orchard page for more information.
This project is funded by Kerry County Councils Local Agenda 21 fund with the support of Transition Kerry
Public consultation day
Kerry County Council is holding a public consultation day regarding the proposed Tralee to Fenit Greenway.
Venue: Fenit Parish Centre
Date: Wednesday 23rd May 2018
Time: 11am – 8pm
Maps of the route of the proposed greenway will be on display for inspection throughout the day. Kerry County Council officials will be available to discuss any aspect of the project on a one-to-one basis with landowners and interested parties during the hours specified above. In the event that a person cannot attend, an appointment can be made on an alternative date in their office in Tralee or at their landholding if preferred.
There will also be a public consultation the following day regarding the proposed Great Southern Trail from Listowel to the County Bounds.
Venue: Listowel Arms Hotel (Greenville Room)
Date: Thursday 24th May 2018
Time: 11am – 8pm
Great news around hopefully Ireland’s longest Greenway from Fenit to Limerick is not too far away, please come out and support Kerry County County Council on these projects.
Kerrys Eye – Fury at Greenway Delay
Article and Editor’s Comment from this weeks Kerry’s Eye ahead to this weekends ‘Cycle the Line’ event.
John Brassil raises the Greenway in the Dáil.
John Brassil TD raised the lack of progress on the Tralee Fenit Greenways and in Kerry in general with the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the Dáil during the week.
On page 45 of the programme for Government there is a commitment to providing significant funding towards developing a national greenway network. In my county of Kerry, there is a disused railway line from Tralee to Fenit. There has been a walkway proposed for it for a number of years but there has been no progress whatsoever this year or last year. The south Kerry greenway from Glenbeigh down to Renard was announced amid great fanfare in 2014. Again there has been very little progress.
When will we see delivery of this commitment in County Kerry and across Ireland?
The Taoiseach asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to reply.
Photo – John Brassil at the launch of phase two of the greenway in June 2014
The Tralee – Fenit ‘Goldway’ mentioned in the Dáil.
The Tralee to Fenit Greenway was mentioned in the Dáil yet again recently this time during a debate on the finance bill.
Minister Brendan Griffin was waxing lyrically about the benefits of Greenways while welcoming the extra €50 million allocated for greenway development in the budget, lets hope we see some of that funding down here next year !
I am glad that an extra €50 million has been allocated to greenway development, which has sustainability written all over it. There is huge potential for additional greenways. Research shows that every euro spent on greenways has a massive return in terms of economic activity. An example of that is the greenway from Westport to Achill. I was on the route from Newport to Mulranny in 2010 and it was a short, quiet greenway. I went back in 2013 and when I was sitting in a hotel in Achill waiting for a taxi to bring me back to Westport after completing the greenway I wrote a blog entitled “Why greenways should be called goldways”. Activity on the route included taxi hire, cafés, bicycle hire and many other little shops doing very well out of it. There is great potential to do even more in that regard. Members know of the Dungarvan greenway, which is going very well, and there is much more potential in terms of canal banks, old railway lines and various other assets. In terms of old railway lines, I am particularly familiar with the south Kerry line from Farranfore to Valentia Harbour and lines from Tralee to Fenit and Kilmorna to Listowel. Not only are those assets available but we have an obligation to those gone before us who built those fantastic feats of engineering by hand to make the most of those resources. Not to do so would be a terrible waste. Those fantastic feats of engineering were put in place in the late 1800s when there was little machinery to assist in their construction. We have an opportunity to make the most of them for this generation and for future generations and need to grasp that opportunity. I am, therefore, glad that €50 million has been allocated for drawdown in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and will be working on that within my Department.
You can read the full thread here.
Photo – Minister Griffin walking the yet to be developed part of the line north of Mounthawk in 2013.
(Another) petition submitted to Kerry Co Co
An online petition with over 1000 signatures in support of the Tralee to Fenit Greenway was presented to Kerry County Council last week, this petition follows the previous petition with approximately 1000 signatures which was submitted to Tralee Town Council in 2012.
The submission coincided with the Tralee Muncipal District Budget meeting which yet again saw no funding provided for the project, while concerns were raised about the proposed Tralee Fenit Greenway not being included in the coming year’s budget only Cllr’s Ferris and Daly voted against the budget, which passed after the other seven Tralee councillors: Foley, Locke, McEllistrim, O’Brien, McCarthy, Finucane and Spring voted in favour.
Mr. Stephenson (Fenit) who presented the petition told the Kerry’s Eye
“It’s going on far to long, we have had 20 years of excuses”
The report goes on to quote Moira Murrell CEO of KCC saying “she is hopeful that there will be funding in the near future. It is now with the Department of Tourism”
While this maybe suggest that a funding bid has been made to the department this is not the case and the indications from the department are that in order to be successful in a funding bid planning would need to be in place.
How can Kerry Co Co keep saying this project is a priority and then continuously fail to allocate any funding ?
Millions of euro and hundreds of jobs are being lost because this isn’t being built
If there was a factory of 80 or 100 jobs created in Tralee or Fenit politicians would be jumping up and down saying isn’t it great and everything etc. But you know it’s time to step up to the mark because obviously there are issues that need to be sorted but millions and millions and millions or euro and hundreds of jobs are being lost because this isn’t being built…
Well said Alan Kelly we couldn’t have put it better ourselves !
http://www.radiokerry.ie/former-minister-says-south-kerry-greenway-one-best-western-europe/
Update on ownership and planning
Radio Kerry report that the final pieces of the legal agreement for transferring ownership from CIE are currently being dealt with, and the council is expected to officially own the lands by the New Year.
The next phase of works to be undertaken include completing the design for the planning application, the assessment of the environmental impacts, and lodging the planning application – this is expected to be done before the end of March.
Meeting with the CEO and senior engineer of Kerry County Council
Earlier this week (June 28th) representatives of the Friends of the Tralee – Fenit Greenway met with the CEO and senior engineer of Kerry County Council.
Mike o Neill thanked Ms Murrell for meeting the delegation and asked that an update
would be given on the current status of the Tralee to Fenit Greenway. He explained that
this project had been the subject of negotiation over a long period of time and there was
deep frustration at the seeming lack of progress and the many promises which for one
reason or another were never realised.
Ms. Murrell outlined that the Greenways were a priority and that they understood the
value of such projects. She explained that they had sought funding for the Tralee/Fenit
and the South Kerry Greenways and they had been granted aid for the South Kerry
project. They had therefore allocated their resources to that project. They do not have
the resources to tackle both projects but they should become available before the end of
this year and they would then allocate them to the Tralee/Fenit project.
Secondly. There was a problem with ownership of the land as Irish rail wanted the
council to absorb the cost of ducting the Fenit and North Kerry lines at a cost of a
million plus euro. This could not be agreed to as it would have caused problems when
funding was later sought for these projects.
However this matter was now resolved and the council is now satisfied that they now
own the land. This will now allow them to apply for planning and do an EiS, which may
be necessary. They will do this as soon as the resources become available, which should
be before the end of this year. In the meantime they will survey the land.
Thirdly. In order to secure funding for the project, it will be listed as a priority in their
action programme due to be launched in July and they will apply for funding from the
newly launched Failte Ireland funding for larger projects. They confirm that it is suitable
project for such funding. Should that not be successful there is another avenue which
will be pursued.
Ms. Murrell and Mr Sheehy assured the delegation that Tralee/Fenit Greenway and Fenit
itself were priority projects and they were positive that they would be delivered