Sir, - I refer to your article of July 13th concerning Wicklow County Council's vote to allow for the development of a golf course on 176 acres of Bray Head. I would like to take issue with what I believe was the extremely uncritical coverage which your paper gave to this deeply flawed planning decision.
Of 24 Wicklow County Councillors, I was alone in voting against a Material Contravention to the County Development Plan which allowed for the building of a golf course on Bray Head. This followed my unsuccessful appeal to fellow councillors to defer the vote for several months until the results of the European-funded SRUNA project (Sustainable Recreational Use of Natural Assets) on Bray Head became available in the Autumn.
While your article referred to my "last minute appeal", it did not offer any appraisal of the very valid arguments which accompanied my appeal. Furthermore, it uncritically accepted the explanations offered by councillors concerning the "protection" which the proposed golf course will supposedly offer Bray Head. I hope you will give me an opportunity in this letter to expose the very spurious nature of those arguments.
Prior to Wicklow County Council's vote of last Monday, most of the land on Bray Head was zoned as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Wicklow County Development Plan. This particular zoning offered a very strong protection to the Head from development of any kind, including a golf course. Under Irish Planning Law, the protection offered by this zoning can be overturned only in an extremely limited number of circumstances. In each of these circumstances, the support of the elected representatives is essential if the protection is to be overturned.
It is extremely disingenuous, therefore, for councillors to claim that they are voting in favour of a golf course on Bray Head in order to protect the Head from the possibility of other, and less acceptable, development in the future. Statements such as these convey the impression that there are forces at work which are beyond the control of elected councillors and which may result in the unwanted development of housing on the Head at some stage in the future. This is clearly not the case and is yet another example of public representatives attempting to "pass the buck" in relation to dubious or unpopular planning decisions which they have made.
For those who might point to the recent McInerney planning controversy on Bray Head as an example of the powerlessness of elected representatives to protect the Head, it is important to point out that the land in question was zoned in a particular way which left it vulnerable to housing development. It is also important to emphasise that elected representatives have a central role in deciding on the kind of zoning which will govern a particular area. If a certain area is deemed to be inappropriately zoned, the responsibility ultimately lies with the elected representatives who endorsed that zoning.
Finally, to those councillors who have argued strongly that the location of a golf club on Bray Head will protect it from unwanted development in the future, I ask them to consider the fate of the Ravenswell Golf Club in Bray town. How do they explain the high density housing and commercial development which is about to proceed on what were, until very recently, golf club lands? - Yours, etc.,
Deirdre De Burca, Green Party, Bray, Co Wicklow.