News

Community Orchard

Posted on by traleefenit

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

Posted on by traleefenit

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.

Part 8 planning to be complete by July

Posted on by traleefenit

There was positive news at todays Tralee municipal district meeting council meeting following questions raised by a number of councilors. Kerry Council council confirmed that they have now completed the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA) screening reports for the greenway, these reports were required in order to determine the planning with is required for the project.

EIA Screening is carried out  in order to determine if an Environmental Impact Assessment is required while the AA Screening determines the potential effects, if any, of the proposed project on sites with European conservation designations, i.e. Natura 2000 sites located nearby.

The findings of these reports is positive recommending that the remainder of the project can proceed under a Part 8  planning process (similar to the previous phases of the project) rather than requiring a more laborious and expensive application to An Bord Pleanala or a full Environment Impact Statement (EIS) which has caused delays in the delivery of the South Kerry Greenway.

Kerry Council Council also confirmed that work will now commence on preparing this application and reopening of dialogue with landowners and residents whose  land adjoins the former railway, this is expected to be complete by July.

As per the part 8 planning process the council will then publish their proposals for the remainder of the line and the public will have an opportunity to make observations, all going well the results of the process should be known by late September or October.

If the project receives planning approval it will be in an ideal position to contend for national greenway funding which is due to open at the end of the year.

 

Radio Kerry – No Time for Tardiness for Tralee-Fenit Greenway

Posted on by traleefenit

Feint resident Mike O’Neil spoke to Jerry O’Sullivan on Radio Kerry yesterday,

You can listen back to the interview here:

The story also featured on the news for the day:
http://www.radiokerry.ie/calls-keep-proposed-tralee-fenit-greenway-project-alive/

Lets cycle the Line

Posted on by traleefenit

This event will take place exactly a year after the last public event, a year which has seen little progress on the project yet again !

It is also 6 years since the first public support walk in 2011, this time we are calling on people to get on their bikes to demand the development of important facility.

Meet at Saint Brendan’s church Rock Street for a 2.30 departure for cycling leisurely cycle to Mounthawlk and back.

This is a family friendly event for young and old and all abilities but if you don’t fancy cycling please come along and walk.

Spread the word and lets make the greenway happen, hopefully next year we can cycle to the beach 🙂

 

Want to get involved and help spread the world, you can download posters and fliers below:

Sheet with single Poster  – png | pdf

Sheet with 4 fliers  – png | pdf

 

 

 

John Brassil raises the Greenway in the Dáil.

Posted on by traleefenit

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.

Posted on by traleefenit

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.