‘Annex Tramore’ – war of words as Kilkenny-Waterford boundary tensions rise again
The hugely divisive boundary war between Waterford and south Kilkenny has reared its head again.
Tensions erupted after it emerged a Waterford Green Party councillor, Jody Power, is bringing forward a motion before Waterford City and County Council to resurface plans to expand the boundary into south Kilkenny.
The news, predictably, brought a swift and furious response from councillors in the south of the county, including from Cllr Power’s party colleague, Kilkenny councillor Maria Dollard.
In an interview on KCLR’s The Way It Is programme she is “100%” against any moves to try and cede territory to our neighbouring county. And she joked that she’d like to begin proceedings to ‘annex’ Tramore if Waterford Council tried to resurrect its ill-fated, and hugely expensive, attempts to expand the city limits on the Kilkenny side of the border.
“I was thinking that I could maybe put my own motion down for Kilkenny County Council that we also would like to extend our border down to Tramore because I think the people of Kilkenny would like a beach because it’s the one thing we don’t have is a beach. Maybe I’ll do a counter motion from our point of view,” she said.
Plans to expand Waterford’s boundary into south Kilkenny has been mety with a furious public backlash in the south of the county down through the years. During the last attempt, which was eventually shot down in 2017 by the then Planning Minister Simon Coveney, more 20,000 people petitioned against any changes to the existing boundary.
Cllr Eamon Aylward, the Chairperson of the Piltown Municipal Districts, has also said he doesn’t see why the issue is being rehashed now, saying it has already been settled and that any attempts to rekindle the boundary war is doomed to failure.
