Helping forge a path for North Kerry

PUBLIC MEETING ON ECONOMIC FUTURE OF REGION TAKING PLACE

NORTH Kerry people are invited to a meeting on the future of the region taking place next week amid a variety of concerns over the local authority policies governing its development.

Taking place at the Listowel Family Resource Centre (off the John B Keane Road) on Monday next, December 12 from 7.30pm, North Kerry 2017 - Awareness, will discuss four policy and strategy documents in particular as part of a broader discussion on the ways to improve the region’s fortunes.

The meeting is being called by the North Kerry Tourism Forum, a group established on the recommendation of the North Kerry Jobs Task Force to identify ways to develop tourism - one of two industries along with food production identified as the key drivers of the local economy into the future by the Task Force.

“This non-political meeting will factually outline and compare the policies relevant to North Kerry contained in reports and Strategic Plans which are in place by Kerry County Council,” Chairman of the Tourism Forum John O’Sullivan said this week in calling on people from across the area to attend.

The documents subject to scrutiny at the meeting are the Kerry Tourism Strategy and Action Plan; the Kerry Socio Economic Report and Local Economic and Community Plan; the Landscape Character Assessment of Kerry and the Renewable Energy Strategy for Kerry.

“These strategic plans and reports are vitally important to every town and village in North Kerry. North Kerry Tourism Forum is a non-political, voluntary group set up in 2014 with the aim to promote tourism in North Kerry,” Mr O’Sullivan added.

The Landscape Character Assessment which identified large tracts of the region as being unimportant for ‘scenery, tourism or recreation’ is among the great concerns of many in the region.