Landowner efforts to halt the development of the South Kerry Greenway have suffered a major setback.

The refusal of an application for leave to appeal a High Court decision which upheld the granting of planning permission for the greenway means that further legal avenues to oppose the project have been largely closed off.

Planning permission was initially sought by Kerry County Council for a 32km greenway between Glenbeigh and Renard, but the route was strongly opposed by some farmers whose lands were subject to compulsory purchase orders.

The leave to appeal application was made on behalf of local farmers and environmental activist Peter Sweetman

A legal battle was triggered when planning permission was given the green light by An Bord Pleanála in November 2020 for a 27km greenway between Glenbeigh and Cahersiveen.

This legal challenge ended last week when the High Court refused an application for leave to appeal a previous decision by the court to uphold the granting of planning permission for the greenway.

The leave to appeal application was made on behalf of local farmers and environmental activist Peter Sweetman.

The judgment found that there were no compelling legal arguments or “other caselaw” on which to grant the application for leave to appeal.

It noted that no provision of the environmental impact assessment directive was identified in the application, and, similarly, no provision of implementing legislation was identified.

The planning permission for the greenway is subject to a number of conditions.

The 27km route will have a 3m-wide paved surface for pedestrians and cyclists

These include an ecological pre-construction survey to check for the presence of protected species including the lesser horseshoe bat and the Kerry slug.

If these protected species are found, they will have to be relocated to a similar habitat.

The 27km route will have a 3m-wide paved surface for pedestrians and cyclists.

There are more than 120 different types of intersections with other routes along the planned greenway.