Sir, – I like to visit Greystones, Co Wicklow. I admire the Main Street with its diversity of shops and restaurants, a pleasant place where visitors tend to linger.
The early development of the new marina and harbour showed promise: moorings for boats, new slipways and a small beach. The work was halted for some time due to the recession, and now that the work has resumed I foolishly thought it would be like a continental marina, surrounded by low-level boat clubs, well designed houses, a place we could be proud of.
What a mess the final result is turning out to be! True, there is a nice entrance and a pleasant little public park, but that does not compensate for for the large areas of bare concrete, warehouse type buildings with grim steel shutters and, worst of all, two storey buildings blocking the skyline at the end of the pier.
Building a residential area was, of course, the driving force behind the whole project, but I was appalled by the dull, old fashioned exterior of the luxury houses overlooking the marina. What were the planners thinking of to allow this?
Tired of the concrete surrounds of the marina I went for a walk on the beautiful seafront and was dismayed to find the lamp posts equipped with loudspeakers from which an automated voice chided the walkers, telling them, over and over again, all day long, that Greystones was a tidy town and to pick up litter and clean up after their dogs.
It is nice to see that George Orwell’s prediction is coming true and that Big Brother is watching over Greystones! – Yours, etc,
JJ MURPHY,
Bray, Co Wicklow.