Madam, - In recent days, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has begun covering the "circus field" in Blackrock Park with tarmac to create a car-park. This is an area of the park opposite Blackrock College which has been used for many years by visiting circuses.
The work - which went ahead without any announcement or consultation - has led to renewed local alarm that the council has a hidden agenda for the park.
Earlier this year plans were announced for an annual ice-rink at the western end of the park abutting Booterstown Dart station and close to the uniquely valuable bird sanctuary in Booterstown Marsh. Local residents' groups, alarmed at the needless loss of green space and the incalculable effects on the bird sanctuary, vigorously opposed the scheme. They pointed out that the "circus field" - about three minutes' walk further into the park - offered a better site for an ice rink, without any environmental ill-effects. But the council seemed strangely fixated on the site beside the marsh and said it had earmarked the "circus field" as a car-park to serve the ice-rink.
However, it shelved its plans three months ago, following the withdrawal of private sponsorship (and having received over 400 letters of objection).
The council's sudden, unilateral decision to press ahead with its car-park in the "circus field" just days before Christmas makes a nonsense of its supposed commitment to partnership and consultation with local residents. Why is the council seemingly determined to bulldoze ahead with its ill-advised and unexplained plans for Blackrock Park, come what may? - Yours, etc,
GERRY McMAHON,
ROSIE HEAD,
Combined Booterstown Residents' Associations,
Booterstown Avenue,
Co Dublin.