Sir, - It is heartening to read that the Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands expressed the hope of visitors to Ireland finding a "magic trail of culture" on their arrival. Ms de Valera would do well to qualify this hope by advising visitors to avoid the trail to Galway. Such is the pace of development in this city that the planning authority, Galway Corporation, has found it expedient to delete all conservation areas from their Development Plan.
The Draft Development Plan of 1997 listed several buildings and sections of streetscape as conservation areas or sites and structures to be preserved under the heading of Specific Objectives, and expressed the zoning objective of protecting specific areas of the city centre as residential amenities. In the actual plan passed by the local authority all these worthy aspirations were abandoned and the city centre is left unprotected against mindless development.
If the attitude of Galway Corporation is widespread, as reports from Kilkenny would suggest it may be, then Ms de Valera might do well to apply the Government's commitment to protecting Ireland's heritage towards educating our planners. If the maw of the Celtic Tiger is fed indiscriminately the Minister's magic trail of culture might lead to an urban desert. - Yours, etc.,
F. X. O'Brien, Forster Street, Galway.