‘Kerry falling behind big time’, council urged to pursue motorhome opportunities

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

Southern Ireland’s foremost motorhome club has urged Kerry County Council to consider plans for motorhome infrastructure, highlighting the potential economic benefits.

The Pheonix Motorhome Club said “Kerry is falling behind big time” due to there being no motorhome specific parking areas.

While motorhomes are accommodated every year at campsites and caravan parks across the county, there is no infrastructure specifically tailored to motorhomes.

As club spokesperson, Colin McCarthy, put it: “a motorhome is a totally self-contained vehicle” and thus requires very little facilities.

All that’s required is a place to park and water servicing amenities – toilets, showers, cooking facilities and even electricity hook-ups are all superfluous as all are on board.

“We do go as a club to Kerry a lot because we have a good reputation with the GA clubs and rugby clubs and so on. However, when we try to go to Kerry as an individual, like when we want to go to Kenmare or Dingle or Tralee, there’s no facilities,” said Colin.

“We find it very difficult to be paying €45 for a night in a campsite in Kerry when we can go to a motorhome packing area which is provided by Cork County Council in Cobh for €10. Where we have full services, grey and black water, and fresh water and so on. They even have an electric hook up which most of us don’t need anyway because we have solar panels and battery banks.”

The Cobh five foot way campervan park was built by Cork County Council (CCC) over a decade ago and was further formalised with facilities and parking charges around 2017.

With 30 spaces, each at €10 for 24 hours, the park earned €45,000 for the council last year, boasting an occupancy rate of 60% all year round.

The money generated by the park has been ringfenced for improvements to the immediate surrounding area, including upgrading a playground and maintaining walkways and a nearby gym.

Colin hailed it as “highly successful” while CCC officer, Pádraig Lynch, who oversaw much of the development said it had generated good publicity and business for Cobh.

“What we’ve noticed in the last couple of years is some of the takeaways in Cobh actually do flyer drops in the summer for campervans and it’s a great news story for Cobh. Tourism is our main industry at the moment and its another facility that we can provide for tourists visiting the town,” said Mr Lynch.

The Hub in Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny, is also a thriving example of a modern campervan park, with online booking and number plate recognition, it contributed an estimated €1.5m to the local economy in the first four years of its operation, starting in 2018.

Key to CCC’s success was the enactment of several bylaws to control the parking in area, which being one of the first in Ireland, were inspired by English councils’ laws.

These laws included allowing only campervans into the park, a maximum stay of 48 hours and minimum return time of 72 hours.

This has given them better legal control over the park and prevented people from taking up permanent residence there.

Other councils have now built similar sites, including at Dungarvan, Co Waterford, and Portumna in Co Galway.

Kerry councillor Jackie Healy-Rae believes Kerry is missing out on a major opportunity and urged Kerry County Council to look at planning a pilot scheme for next summer.

“Overall we need to step because we are falling around rapidly when it comes to other local authorities leading on this. Kerry is a tourism county, and we have to live up to that. We have to adapt our facilities and offerings, and constantly evolve with what people want,” said he said.

“There is over 15 and a half thousand motorhomes in this country and we have to accommodate those people whether it be on short stays or whether they’re visiting our county, because that’s what they expect.

“We need to make sure we have some form of pilot in place for the next tourism season so that we can test it, and after, review whether it was a success or not. I’m not saying for a second if Kerry County Council come along and do what I would like them to do, that its going to be an instant overnight success.

“But I hear this from other local authorities where it has been done, and it has been successful. Kerry is the tourism capital of this country and I would have no doubt that if we put the facilities they would be well used, and would boost our offering to people coming to the county.”