Sir, - Thirty years ago, the approach to Castletown was wrecked for all time thanks to a disastrous planning decision by Kildare County Council. Now plans are well advanced to wreck the entire demesne of Carton, whose park is still intact and universally accepted to be a unique work of art. Permission exists for: nine new crossings over the Rye Water and the serpentine Sheet of Water; 29
conference units, presumably convertible into houses; 119 golf villas, i.e.
houses; 40 demensne residences, or houses; 48 staff accommodation units; 201-
bedroom hotel attached to main house; three golf courses; maintenance buildings;
indoor riding school, equestrian centre and car park; conference and executive facilities; country club. The permission was given because jobs would be created, but there is no sense in destroying one amenity to create another, and wherever Sheraton built, jobs would follow. The preservation of Carton
Demesne is a matter of urgent national importance. We read in the Leinster
Leader (July 10th) that £6 million is to be sought to finance the project as a grant from European Union tourist development. A grant to ruin for all time one of Ireland's loveliest demesnes? If any grant is forthcoming it should be used to buy out the speculator and the hope value that he acquired when Kildare County Council gave the go-ahead for the scheme in 1990.
Carton should of course be a tourist attraction, but under the present scheme it would simply be exploited and destroyed. -Yours, etc., (Hon) Desmond
Guinness, Leixlip Castle, Co Kildare.