Sir, - I hope the public will not be too easily impressed by the magical words used to describe the proposed marina for Bray beach.
Having lived in Brighton for 20 years I must say that the marina there was built with similar promises in the 1970s. In reality it remained for years as a rather deserted place containing boats, flats and a multi-screen cinema. It is now livelier, all right - it has recently become virtually a shopping centre anchored around a cheap superstore.
At least in Brighton it takes up only a small part of a long and beautiful coastline, but in Bray it will have the effect of privatising practically the entire length of the town and effectively concreting over one of the last vestiges of open space left.
Privatisation of the coastline is an issue that needs to be urgently discussed in a public forum, particularly in Co Wicklow, where development projects along the entire coastline from north to south threaten to leave us as cut off from the sea as any inland county. - Yours, etc.,
Judy Osborne, Ashford, Co Wicklow.