.
Anne Marie Fuller.
PLANS for the Island of Geese in Tralee should be revised in light of the Covid19 crisis, according to the Kerry branch of the Green Party.
“We now need more open spaces in which we can move freely while maintaining physical distance,” said the party’s Tralee representative Anne-Marie Fuller.
“This space, which was gifted to the people of Tralee, is ideally situated to provide a new, open-air public realm space for the whole community.”
The current proposals for the use of part of the site, which was donated to the Council by the Kerry Group, is to construct a building with office and retail/ restaurant/café space and 30% of the land space to public realm.
“Tralee doesn’t need more office, retail and cafe space,” says Ms. Fuller. “In fact, in the call for ideas for the site, only 1.74% of respondents wanted office space. 59.74% of people wanted it used for arts/culture, social/community, or public amenity.
“This could be a wonderful, large, flexible space for a variety of purposes such as open-air performances, films and concerts, street art and exhibitions, festivals, farmers’ markets and an enjoyable park to socialise and relax in.
“The current public realm plan, which covers 30% of the site, includes a bit of space for these possibilities but on a limited basis and would lead to people being packed into the space. It makes sense now to abandon the plan to build large buildings on the site allocate 100% of the space to the public realm.”
Among the 17 requests put by the Green Party to Fianna Fail and Fine Gael prior to entering negotiations for government, was a commitment to prioritising urban renewal in line with the ‘Town Centre First’ model.
The Kerry branch of the party submitted its proposals on the Island of Geese to Kerry County Council under the Part 8 Public Consultation which closed last Friday (15 May 2020)
