Completing the Ring Road should be a “top priority” for Kilkenny County Council, according to the Cathaoirleach.
Cllr Andrew Mc Guinness says the half-finished route is hindering the Council’s progress in other major projects for the city.
In particular, he says plans that were presented to elected members yesterday, on how to make Kilkenny more cyclist-friendly, are being severely impacted.
Cllr Mc Guinness joked at yesterday’s (Friday’s) meeting of the City Municipal District that the long-contested route should officially be called the ‘Half Ring Road’.
He says the reality, however, is actually no laughing matter;
“Well look I might have passed that comment in a light-hearted way but it’s not really amusing when you think about the length of time we’ve been talking about the completion of the Ring Road” he told KCLR News. “We call it a ring road, but it’s not really a ring road- it’s half a ring road. All of our decisions as a local authority would be much much easier, and easier to implement, if we actually had a complete Ring Road. I just think that we need to up the ante on our campaigning for the funding to complete that project.”
The Cathaoirleach says it’s becoming clear that all other projects will be much more achievable once the Ring Road is fully completed;
“I think it should be one of the top priorities for Kilkenny County Council” he explains. “So much relies on it. So much of our traffic management problems would be resolved if we had it. It would make our engineers’ jobs much easier when coming up with different solutions for the city and the environs if we just had a complete ring road.”
