Madam, - Any city or country development plan is a contract between the council and the people, through the direct involvement of elected representatives. It is then the planning department's job to decide which developments get the go-ahead within that framework.
By June 1st Ashcastle Development had been granted full planning permission by both Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and Dublin City councils for a 69 luxury apartments with car parking beside Booterstown Marsh, the internationally renowned bird sanctuary.
This is in direct contravention of both their development plans as the site is a proposed National Heritage Area, on the seaward side of the Rock Road, and is zoned F, designed "to preserve and provide for open space and recreational amenity" - not apartment blocks.
Surely this cannot be allowed to happen. Why bother with development plans if our planners are going to ignore them? We must all speak out in any way we can against this abandonment of our development plans and stop the erosion of what little green space Dublin city and county has left for future generations. - Yours, etc.,
CARMEL QUINN,
St Helen's Road,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.