Sir, – I wish the Liffey Valley Park Alliance and Senator Emer Currie every success with their campaign to restore access for the public to Farmleigh Bridge and to establish full access to the beautiful stretch of the Liffey between Lucan and Chapelizod (News, November 2nd).
It is a crying shame that, with the exception of Waterstown Park, the Strawberry Beds and the river Liffey in that area are effectively not safely accessible to either walkers or cyclists.
When I was a councillor on South Dublin County Council between 1999 and 2011 attempts were made to achieve the same result being campaigned for by the alliance.
We failed primarily because so much of the Liffey riverbank was in private hands.
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Until legislation is enacted guaranteeing and extending rights of way for the public to the countryside, as is the case in most European countries, progress on worthy projects like this one are likely to fail.
Who suffers? The general public and the tourist industry. – Yours, etc,
ROBERT DOWDS,
chairperson, Keep Ireland Open.
Sir, – I could hardly believe my eyes when I read that the Farmleigh Bridge had been restored faithfully at a cost of ¤1.3 million, but that there will be no feet on deck any time soon, ie because the boardwalk is not included.
How incongruous is that? Can anyone imagine, say, 14 Henrietta Street being restored minus its Georgian stairs or Kilmainham Jail without its roof?
My dictionary expressly states that a bridge is constructed to enable people etc get from one side of an obstacle to the other.
Is it a case of the Farmleigh project being a bridge over troubled waters?
– Yours, etc,
PATRICK JUDGE,
Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.