Sir, - Fellow Bray resident James McNeive concludes his letter on the "demented" traffic plans for the town (July 20th) by asking: "Is there no-one to shout stop?"
I would like to reassure him that virtually everybody who is affected by this plan has shouted "Stop!", either by signing a petition or by appealing personally to the members of Bray Town Council to present sensible alternative proposals for public perusal and consultation.
Not only Dick Roche, TD, but a substantial number of the councillors have already expressed their deep dissatisfaction with a proposal which is so bad it would be laughable if the potential consequences weren't so devastating to the quality of people's lives in this town.
At least three serious questions arise from this, which to this day remain unanswered:
1. Why was such a huge amount of public money spent on this appallingly inept Clifton Scannell Emerson proposal which does not suggest other alternatives and which does not even incorporate an Environmental Impact Study?
2. Why has Bray Town Council failed to inform each household about this plan and why has it restricted us to just a few weeks to make a submission (the deadline is August 6th)?
3. Why has the Bray Safe Routes to School plan (1997) been abandoned and why is it still unsafe to send children to school on their own by bicycle or on foot? It would seem that the cyclist, like the electron, has a "tendency to exist". The few cycle lanes that there are in this town stop and start at random, as if the cyclist were supposed to appear and disappear like a sub-atomic particle.
The Bray and Environs Transportation Study Interim Report states that "over 40 per cent of trips recorded in the town centre had no business in the town centre" (Table 4.3). The Clifton Scannel Emerson proposal, and I kid you not, wants to re-route the traffic through residential areas instead. Diverting traffic away from residential areas should be the immediate priority of any planner or politician paid by public money in the interests of the people to enhance the quality of their lives. - Yours, etc.,
GREG ROSENSTOCK, Seapoint Road, Bray, Co Wicklow.