‘Peak season traffic is killing Dingle’

DINGLE BRAND ‘AT RISK’ AS TRAFFIC CONGESTION PUTS VISITORS OFF

BUSINESSES in Dingle are urgently appealing to Kerry County Council to do everything it can to alleviate the chronic traffic congestion ‘crippling’ the tourist mecca at peak season.

Traffic congestion is now so bad in the summer months that people are opting to travel for shopping elsewhere and some are simply driving straight out of the town without even getting out of their cars.

A lack of car-parking spaces combines with the heavy summer traffic to strangle flow to the point where the issue is now regularly coming up on international tourist forums at the risk of putting people right off the Dingle brand.

These were among the stark warnings delivered by Dingle business representatives Gary Curran and John Sheey to council officials and councillors at a meeting of the area authority in Killorglin on Friday.

They urged the council to press Government to expedite the completion of the Relief Road, for which €500,000 was allocated last year. It would provide a vital artery from Spa Road to Chapel Lane on the eastern side of the town.

“This is a job we had hoped would have been complete years ago...the local people of west Kerry are at the end of their tether,” Mr Curran informed the Council.

“You can’t come in to do your shopping, you meet a lot of traders who lose a lot of their customers in the summer months...if you’re in Lispole it’s easier to hang a left for Tralee rather than face the traffic in Dingle.”

Mr Curran warned that internet comments are now threatening to put brand Dingle at risk, meanwhile.

“You don’t want people resting on their laurels now that the €500,000 has arrived. When will the relief road be completed and when will we have free movement?” Mr Curran asked.

Council engineer Pádraic Teahan said the Authority hopes the scheme could go to construction by 2018 with negotiations on land acquisition proceeding well amid ‘good engagement’ from landowners.

Landowners in Dingle are much less agreeable on providing spaces for car parks, however. Fine Gael Councillor Seamus Cosaí MacGearailt said he had spoken several times with owners of potential carpark sites inside the town to little avail.

His comments came after Mr Sheehy pressed the council on creating new spaces.

“I’ve been around to the landowners myself several times...I’m frustrated myself, they still don’t want to give it even though they would get a good rate for a site.”

However, the Council is still negotiating with one potential seller, director of services Martin O’Donoghue confirmed:

“We have been engaged for a considerable period of time on one site, but it hasn’t concluded. We’re hoping it could conclude in the coming weeks to have it ready for summer, but we’re at the absolute mercy of the owners,” Mr O’Donoghue said. One outcome of the meeting was an agreement to advertise in this paper for potential site providers to come forward in the hope of creating more spaces.

Photo by Declan Malone Gary Curran (left) and John Sheehy of Dingle Business Chamber at the roundabout that is blamed for causing many of the town’s tourist season traffic jams.