Sir, John Ducie, chairman of the Dun Laoghaire Association of An Taisce, in his letter of July 15th objects to the building of high rise apartments on the gardens in the central square of Dun Laoghaire. He urges the council "to have the courage to buy back the Pavilion Gardens, in the interest of the townspeople and of our national heritage". I agree fully with him in all of this, and recommend that the area should be opened up as a civic park.
The late Manning Robertson, consultant architect/planner to Dun Laoghaire, wrote in 1936 that town planning was not "the wholesale pulling down of buildings, but preventing buildings from being built in the wrong place, and so having to be pulled down". Apartments on the Pavilion Gardens would be buildings in the wrong place. In a more enlightened age, they will have to be pulled down! Yours, etc., Architect/town planning consultant, Vico Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin.