News
Horse traffic management plan still on Council’s agenda

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By Sean Moriarty
A proposal to change the way horse traffic is managed in town - first mooted in January last year - is still on the Council’s agenda. Despite remedial work having been carried out late last year using specialised road surfacing material, ruts are beginning to appear on Mission Road again.
In the past horse and carts used to ferry tourists around Killarney were blamed for the poor condition of the road. However, they have now been grounded for the best part of year.
“Mission Road is failing again where the horse and carts travel. What is Kerry County Council’s plan to deal with this?” asked Cllr Niall Kelleher at last Wednesday’s Killarney Municipal meeting.
In January 2020, before COVID-19 restrictions, several councillors called for a jarvey plan to be adopted in the town.
At that time the Council meeting was told that the surface of Mission Road, which was resurfaced in January 2017, was already showing signs of deterioration.
Just over a year ago the Council said it was researching various resurfacing materials including looking at how horse traffic was managed in New York’s Central Park.
“The performance of this road is being monitored. Hopefully when the COVID restrictions are eased, horse drawn traffic will return to this road, therefore give us a better indication on how this surface will react. This will assist in our determination on how best we deal with horse drawn traffic on Mission Road as well as other roads within the town,” a Council official told the meeting.