A four-yearcontroversy over an inland walkway through Westport, Co Mayo, continues despite the recent unveiling of a plan by the Town Council to retain it.
Mr Henry Horkan, chairperson of Westport Civic Trust, said yesterday that a recent report in a local newspaper was how the trust heard of the project.
"We welcome the council's plan to retain, enhance and extend the railway-line walk," said Mr Horkan. "We are pleasantly surprised that our many submissions and reports have been acknowledged, albeit indirectly, by the body. It is vindication of the democratic process and a victory for the huge number of people who have supported our campaign."
Mayo County Council and the Town Council had, until recently, planned to develop the walkway as a link road to the coast. The development was to be achieved by destroying a cut limestone bridge and building a roundabout. The bridge is viewed by the trust as a "magnificent architectural example of our transport heritage". Its facade will now be retained after the bridge is widened according to National Road Authority specifications.
However, the fact that the walkway will be traversed by a new road to access development lands at Clonmoonad, near the harbour, will still be vigourously opposed by the trust. "As long as that proposed road is a line on an architect's drawing board we will be objecting to it," said Mr Horkan.