Sir, – Please let us not have national newspapers whipping up controversy in relation to the proposed new A6 roadway scheme that was recently approved from Randalstown to Castledawson.
I refer to the editorial "The poet and his landscape" (September 10th), in which it is suggested that consideration be given to an alternative route for the A6 for a particular stretch because it traverses countryside where the much-respected Seamus Heaney lived.
There is a statutory planning system in place, with procedures and timelines for planning applications, environmental impact statements, public inquiries, the submission of objections from the public and the tabling of appeals.
After the farcical debacles surrounding the M3 motorway near Tara and the N11 through the Glen of the Downs, both now successfully completed, one hard-earned lesson surely is that all interested stakeholders should engage with the planning process as early as possible and follow the procedures in place. In this way, all stakeholders can make their inputs to the process, have their say clearly and legitimately, and help influence the final outcome to the satisfaction of all.
If the public feels the planning process itself appears unfair or should be reformed, then yes, by all means lobby Ministers to change the system. The relevant body in this case is the Department of Infrastructure in Northern Ireland.
But we must move away from throwing every capital project into the media ring and kicking them about in an unstructured way in newspapers, radio programmes and TV shows, all of which are completely outside the legal planning process. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD COFFEY,
Terenure, Dublin 6W.