A chara, - Current plans for Greystones Harbour could be the blueprint for the sale of Ireland's foreshores.
Listening to Wicklow County Council spokespersons on this issue, one would even think such developments were in the public interest. But the sell-off syndrome wraps up the natural beauty of a harbour and puts a price tag on it, all for the benefit of developers, while ignoring the interests of the coastal environment and the needs and rights of the local community.
Such plans will cut off harbour foreshores from public use, effectively privatising large tracts of public land.
The sell-off of Greystones North Beach is a fait accompli in the minds of the county council, which fails to see that it will be looked on in future as the work of councillors and politicians willing to pervert the county development plan and cheat local people of their chief amenity, in order to sell rooms with a view for a vast profit.
The Minister for the Environment has touted the harbour development and the commitment to rid Greystones of a supposed eyesore. But the harbour is in fact a well-used, well-loved beauty spot, though badly neglected and in need of a conservation strategy that addresses coastal erosion and is sensitive to the unique character of Greystones - the Victorian harbour front, the panoramic seascapes, and the views of Bray Head.
The recent public exhibition of harbour plans by the developer Sispar amounted to a nauseating public relations exercise promising a return of the harbour to the public, when in fact the north beach will be removed forever and 375 residential apartments (four storeys high) and a 230 berth marina will be constructed in its place. In a gross act of hypocrisy, the council claims this multi-million development amounts to saving the harbour. Public private partnerships are supposed to be for necessary public infrastructure - which a 230 berth marina patently is not.
The people concerned with the best interests of the foreshore and harbour are the local residents and communities which devote their time and energy to lobbying politicians and informing other people. Those activists put the council, the Government and their apologists to shame. They have a real appreciation of Greystones and its harbour and know that foreshores should not be sold off or used as a marketing tool for politicians.
Coastal erosion is a major international environmental issue, as well as an issue of national importance, and coastal urbanisation in the form of developments like Sispar's will accelerate Ireland's erosion problems in the long term. The Minister for the Environment is in the unique position of being able to address the concerns of his own constituency on these issues and he should do so. - Yours, etc,
MAIRI ROBERTSON, The Harbour, Greystones, Co Wicklow.