Dublin Dock Development

Sir, - Recent letters and news reports in your paper on proposed further reclamation of Dublin Bay, the potential for an oil …

Sir, - Recent letters and news reports in your paper on proposed further reclamation of Dublin Bay, the potential for an oil pipeline to Dublin Airport and the Minister's study of future port uses have prompted me to question whether all major freight and bulk handling activities in Dublin Port should be phased out over the next 10 to 15 years, retaining only passenger services and limited ro/ro serving the city itself.At present a large acreage of valuable land is being used to store empty containers and further land is used to store oil, grain and other commodities, which then have to be distributed, mainly by track and tanker, around the Dublin region and the country.Shifting these activities to as more suitable location, such as Loughshinney, has already been proposed. Frank McDonald explored many of the issues a few months ago.The land that would be vacated would offer the opportunity to create a major new city quarter in the finest site in Europe, surrounded by water and the wonderful prospects of Dublin Bay.This new quarter could house a population of at least 200,000 and provide the same number of jobs in addition to those already scheduled under the existing Docklands Plan.The port tunnel and southeast motorway would still be required to serve the new city quarter and rail and tram links could be easily provided, if they are planned now. I hope the Minister can be persuaded to consider such radical ideas in this current study, so that this great potential for the city and the country as a whole will not be missed. - Yours etc.,James Pike, (Architect), Cherrywood Road, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin.