By Dan Walsh at Enniscorthy Municipal District Council meeting
Enniscorthy’s proposed 600-metre loop extension at the Urrin Bridge on the Riverside Walk or Country Walk beside the River Slaney, which was granted €200,000 funding in 2021, has to go direct to An Board Pleanála for planning because it is in a special area of conservation, and nothing has happened to date.
The matter was raised at last Monday’s monthly meeting of Enniscorthy Municipal District Council where Cllr Jackser Owens requested an update on developments, or lack of progress, and passionately claimed that “wheelchair users are denied access to the country walk and have never seen it”, and he wondered when the work will be completed?
Mr. Rory O’Mahony from the Environmental Section of Wexford County Council told the meeting of plans to extend the Riverside Walk and complete the 600-metre loop and confirmed the funding of €200,000, said there was “a good landowner agreement, but the plans were expensive, and the work must go to consultants because the Wexford County Council has no ’in-house’ staff to prepared the plans.
In reply to a contribution from Cllr Aidan Browne, Mr. O’Mahoney admitted that the proposed 600-metre loop has not yet gone to planning. He confirmed Cllr Browne’s comments that “it is no ordinary planning process” and must go to An Bord Pleanála, which could delay the project by years! Cllr Browne asked for a commitment to spending the allocation and suggested that, perhaps, the Blackstoops to Island Road walkway could be progressed in the meantime.
The planned project, known as the 600m loop, will provide users with an alternative route around the River Urrin footbridge to get access to the lower Country Walk trail. Users would avoid the footbridge by following a 600m loop path along the northern bank of the Urrin, crossing over at St. John’s Bridge and return along on the southern bank which used to provide an old rail link into Davis Mills, cross the road, and into the foundry until the 1960s. A redundant Irish Rail underpass could be used to re-connect the loop to the existing country walk.
Established as the Country Walk in 2010, the popular trail is a 6km round trip scenic walk along the western bank of the River Slaney south of Enniscorthy town. The trail starts along the promenade walk at the southern end of the town and heads past a playground, crosses a footbridge at the River Urrin and follows a gravel path through a semi-wild meadow and is part of an extensive Special Area of Conservation.
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