Sir, – Your article correctly describes the blight afflicting Dublin's O'Connell Street ("Decades of failed development on Dublin's Main Street", Analysis, May 6th).
I was especially interested to read in your article that once planning permission is given for a fast-food restaurant it can never be taken away.
This prevents a local authority’s planning department from responding to economic, demographic or other change.
Might I suggest that in the future planning permission is given for a finite period, say 20 years, so that when a street decays it can be rejuvenated in the future by changing the nature of business on the street, or perhaps even by converting it into a residential street.
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I was always taught that nothing lasts forever, but it appears to me that, on O’Connell Street, hamburgers and chips will reign supreme indefinitely. – Yours, etc,
MIKE FORDE,
Glenageary, Co Dublin.