County Kilkenny councillors are hitting out at the level of Active Travel funding coming to rural areas locally.
€3.1 million was announced last week for 28 individual transport projects across Kilkenny.
But at a meeting of the Callan Thomastown Municipal District on Wednesday, elected members expressed their disappointment that the bulk of the cash is coming to the city area.
Director of Services Mary Mulholland reminded representatives that their area has already benefitted under a number of different funding streams.
Speaking to KCLR News Councillor Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere says while this is true and great, the towns and villages shouldn’t have been as left out as they were on this latest listing:
“Whilst I welcome the money in general for Kilkenny and any of this funding is great, it’s very disappointing that the rural parts of Kilkenny have been, I suppose, looked over on this particular occasion”.
Councillor Deirdre Cullen says there’s conflicting messages between encouraging active travel and providing the funds to ensure it’s possible:
“It just seems to me that the directive coming down from Government and the NTA is we want to encourage everybody to go and to travel actively, but only if you’re in the big cities. I think it’s wrong what happened here in Kilkenny”
