News

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.

(Another) petition submitted to Kerry Co Co

Posted on by traleefenit

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 ?

 

 

Martin Ferris raises the Greenway in the Dáil

Posted on by traleefenit

Martin Ferris TD asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross of the status of the proposed Tralee to Fenit greenway and when funding will be provided to complete the project.

In reply Minister Ross indicated that the government is commited to making additional funding available for greenways into the future,

Council to undertake assessments on Greenway by end of June

Posted on by traleefenit

Last November we posted that Kerry County Council were expected to complete planning  assessments on the line by the end of March, it seems this deadline was missed.

Radio Kerry are now reporting that Kerry County Council will undertake assessments on the Tralee Fenit rail line by the end of June. 

The examinations are necessary for screening reports, which form part of the planning process for the Tralee Fenit Greenway.

These reports will determine if Environmental Impact and Natura Impact assessments are needed, and whether the planning application will have to go to An Bord Pleanala.

The council’s ecologists have to walk the rail line and undertake preliminary assessments for the screening reports, and once they’re done the scope of the planning process and resources needed will become clear.

The local authority says it’s hoped these walks will completed by the end of June.

The council says significant work has been done in the past 12 months on securing the legal agreement with CIE on the transfer of the land on the rail line, and it’s their objective is to progress the scheme this year.

Make your voice heard

Posted on by traleefenit

An online petition has been set up to call on Kerry County Council to make the Tralee to Fenit Greenway a priority, please sign and share.

Cyclists are being killed on a weekly basis in Ireland as our roads are not safe. The Tralee‐Fenit Greenway should be a big priority for the Kerry County Council so families, kids, adults, locals and visitors can enjoy a safe place to walk and cycle.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Kerry_County_Council_TraleeFenit_Greenway_A_Safe_Place_for_Everyone_to_Cycle/

 

Millions of euro and hundreds of jobs are being lost because this isn’t being built

Posted on by traleefenit

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/

 

 

 

 

Minister Ross’s mixed messages on funding.

Posted on by traleefenit

The lack of progress on the Tralee to Fenit Greenway was raised in the Dail by John Brassil with a parliamentary question to Shane Ross regarding funding for the stalled Tralee to Fenit Greenway.

Minister Ross’s response was disappointing in that he stated that there would be no funding calls for Greenway in the immediate future.

Kerry Cycling Campaign were quick to point out that just a week later Minister Ross contradicted this information saying that Greenway funding would be announced later in the year.

We await clarification but hopefully the later is the case.