€4m biodiversity park for Waterford

A €4 MILLION programme of works containing 50 acres of public park and nature reserve is planned for a bog and former landfill site in Waterford city.

To be announced by Waterford City Council this morning, the biodiversity park on the Tramore Road in the city will result in “one of the largest urban parklands in the country”, according to a council spokesman.

Part-funded by the Office of Public Works, the works will see an extension of the St John’s River Walk and the creation of a 50-acre public park and nature reserve in the areas of Kilbarry Bog and the former Kilbarry landfill site.

The park, also to include flood relief works on the Tramore Road, will “create an urban oasis” covering an area equivalent to greater than three times that of the People’s Park.

Kilbarry Bog, a proposed natural heritage area, is important for plant and animal biodiversity, according to the spokesman.

The bog provides food and cover for mammals and birds along with plant and animal communities, moths and butterflies. The extension of the river walk will see the public pathway developed in order to reach the Tramore Road roundabout on the outer ring road, travelling through the bog, offering views of the “unique plant and wildlife there”. The walkway, east of the Tramore Road, will be connected to the new parklands on the remediated landfill site where refuse was dumped for 30 years prior to its closure in 2005.