Cllr. Mike Kennelly moved this motion “When is it envisaged that the Great Southern Greenway will be ready for the planning process” at the Kerry County Council full meeting last Monday and welcomed the following response from Kerry County Council.
“Kerry County Council has recently acquired ownership of the North Kerry Railway line from Tralee to Limerick and Tralee to Fenit Railway line. The proposed greenway along this line will be progressed on a staged basis. The first phase will be the 10.5km section from Listowel Town to the Limerick County Bounds at Kilmorna.”
Currently the Listowel Municipal District is carrying out vegetation clearance works on the Old Railway line from Kilmorna to Listowel town. Following clearance works, the appointed Consultants, RPS, will carry out detail surveys along the line to progress the design of the greenway. It is expected that the design of the greenway will be completed by the end of 2018 and the preparation of the necessary planning documentation can begin.
In 2017 Waterford opened their new Greenway with 240,00 people using the route.
Councillor Kennelly commented: “This wonderful tourism initiative for north Kerry has to be progressed immediately if funding is to be allocated in 2018. K.C.C. executive engineer Eamon Scanlon is working closely with land owners and home owners along the greenway route and I am asking all parties to collectively get this tourism initiative over the line and open up north Kerry for huge investment potential. I believe this route will be of great economic benefit to north Kerry and surrounding areas.”
Councillor Mike Kennelly can be contacted on this initiative on telephone 086 8077359 or email mikeykennelly@hotmail.com
