Approval has been granted for a 32km-greenway along a disused railway line skirting the Ring of Kerry.
An Bord Pleanála on Thursday gave its backing to the project and Kerry County Council received clearance for the compulsory purchase of more than 220 landholdings from some 200 landowners.
The land, part of the Great Southern Railway, reverted to private ownership after the line was abandoned in 1960. The line used to provide access for farmers and the fishing sector to markets in and outside the county.
The greenway project was announced in 2014 and was to be a flagship project for the network of cycleways promoted by the Department of Transport.
The greenway is expected to cost more than €20 million and construction will involve some considerable engineering challenges.
Some of the most impressive structures that characterised the old line – the Caherisveen Railway bridge, the Gleensk viaduct and the Drung Hill Tunnels – will need to be repaired. Underpasses of the N70 Ring of Kerry as well as a new bridge will also be constructed.
The application by the council under the Roads Act is for a 3m-wide paved surface, fencing, buildings, entrances and exits and carparks mainly along the rail corridor.
Sticking point
A lengthy oral hearing on the project took place last year and objectors included some landowners and environmentalists. The use of compulsory purchase orders proved a particular sticking point.
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) vigorously opposed the use of the orders, arguing the greenway was not public infrastructure in the normal sense of the term.
An Bord Pleanála has approved the use of the orders, saying the greenway was in the interest and benefit of the public and community. It said there was a need “to provide a catalyst for the economic regeneration of the area”.
Cllr Patrick Connor-Scarteen, chair of the county council, welcomed the decision which he said would provide an enormous boost for south Kerry in particular.
The council told the oral hearing its motivation for restoring the old railway was to revitalise the area economically and socially given the increased interest in cycling and walking.
Conditions
Eleven conditions were attached to the planning approval, many concerning environmental matters, including that some of the scheme affecting the Valentia estuary be omitted. An ecologist must be employed to oversee species including the Kerry slug, the freshwater pearl mussel and other protected species like the badger, lesser horsehoe bat and otter.
There are a number of conditions related to road safety also, with cattle grids to be combine with chicane gates at intersections with access roads and driveways; and the steep gradients of some sections of the Ring of Kerry cycleway are to be well signalled. Speed limits are to be reduced on some sections of the N70.
IFA national environment chairman Paul O’Brien said he expects this case will lead to a new approach for planning greenways that would avoid the use of compulsory purchase orders.
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