A new dawn for Kilkenny City gets closer and closer...

The Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) was once again up for discussion at the most recent sitting of the Kilkenny City Municipal District as plans continue to be put in place.

The SUMP plan is designed to meet the needs of businesses and the wider public in the city primarily in terms of accessible transport, street design and the wider- infrastructure of the city with a projected population growth of 9,280 expected by 2030.

Since 2022, the SUMP has been through multiple rounds of consultation with the public and key stakeholder groups and another period of consultation is due to take place before the end of the year with the final SUMP expected to be presented at the end of this year.

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The over-riding ambition of the past two stages of the plan is the development of the ‘ten-minute city concept’ which involves the regeneration of the city centre and improved access to the city and its services.

In order to achieve that, those behind the project have targetted a number of key areas to address which include; the addition of new bus routes on the existing KK1 and 2 services, the completion of the St Mary’s Lane and St Kieran’s Street Urban Enhancement Schemes and a number of pedestrian improvements, primarily focussing on ‘safe crossing points’. - READ MORE ON THE 'SUMP' PROCESS HERE 

Addressing the latter point at Friday’s sitting of city councillors, Mayor Andrew McGuinness suggested ‘either taking away’ or going the ‘whole hog’ and removing courtesy crossings.

These are locations where drivers are not legally required to stop for pedestrians.

Cllr John Coonan concurred with his party colleague but suggested greater signage that can be seen ‘from a distance’ would limit safety worries at such crossings.