A chara, Your report (May 2nd) included a graphic of the proposed LUAS line. The map shown is for the moment sadly innacurate - LUAS as presently proposed will not run through the outer city villages of Inchicore and Kilmainham. The announcement by the LUAS team to change their original proposal and route the light rail away from Inchicore/ Kilmainham was greeted with dismay and anger in our area.
Inchicore/Kilmainham is an area of enormous importance in terms of socio cultural heritage and of considerable aesthetic and architectural charm. However, successive governments have allowed the place to deteriorate drastically. Our village streets are already choked with an unsustainable level of through traffic. LUAS represents the perfect major first step our area needs to take towards regeneration. It was for this very reason that both the Dublin Transport Initiative and the LUAS Team themselves chose Inchicore/Kilmainham as their preferred route through this part of the city.
Why then have we lost it? There are three reasons - firstly the highly vocal campaign of a small unrepresentative grouping of wealthy business people in one part of Kilmainham (most or all of whom do not reside in the area). Secondly, the hopelessly amateur efforts of the LUAS Public Relations Team to mobilise the latest support liar the project in Inchicore/Kilmainham and, thirdly, a depressing lack of vision on behalf of our public representatives.
In the last few weeks our group, CLUAS, has conducted its own exhaustive door to door canvass of the community. Cluas is a local group made up of residents of the areas affected by the bad decision to change the Light Rail route. Our intention is to have this decision reversed for the benefit of all the residents of the Inchicore/ Kilmainham area. We estimate that we now have the written support of at least 80 per cent of the local community - well over 3,000 people who want LUAS for Inchicore/Kilmainham/Mount Brown. The fact that the LUAS PR operation failed to ensure that an up to date graphic illustration on the proposed routing of the light rail was published in your report, is the latest example of their appalling sloppy handling of the whole project. It represents insult added to injury for the people of Inchicore/Kilmainham/Mount Brown.
Tugtar Cluas do phobal Luas! - Le meas,
Inchicore Road,
Dublin 8.