Sir, - Your photographic report on the annual Tidy Towns competition winners (The Irish Times, September 15th) shows that this award system still has not grasped the fundamental problems affecting Irish towns. This is the daily loss of the character of our older buildings and townscapes through thoughtless and uncontrolled alterations.
The single greatest problem is the wholesale replacement of traditional timber sash windows with new ones which fail to match them in design, material or quality, mainly in uPVC. The 19th-century stone houses of the Tidy Town national winner, Ardagh, are being progressively filled with uPVC. The flowers in the square of Clonakilty, the small town winner, cannot distract from the destruction of its character by the uPVC-windowed terrace behind. The photograph of Kilkenny, the large town winner, shows the Marble City Bar, known countrywide in posters and photographic features - but the photograph is already out of date. In the past few weeks the timber sashes on the upper floors have been replaced with crude uPVC hinged frames which seriously detract from its renowned appearance.
There is no economic, aesthetic or practical argument in favour of uPVC that holds water, and certainly none that could justify defacing our historic towns with it. Those who still remain to be convinced should come along to the Irish Georgian Society's "Traditional Building and Conservation Skills in Action" exhibition this weekend in the National Museum, Collins Barracks. I recommend it especially to all Tidy Towns committees, so that next year the real, historic Ireland is better represented and the tide of uPVC is stemmed. - Yours, etc., Mary Bryan,
Conservation Officer,
Irish Georgian Society,
Merrion Square,
Dublin 2.