Sir, - Can there be a streetscape of any other major western European city that is more repellent than the footpaths of Dublin? What a sight affronts my eyes and nose (never mind the visitors - they can leave) as I stickily squelch my way to work each day. Gum-speckled, vomit-splattered and litter-strewn, washed only by the urine of swinish drunks and the corrosive effluent that oozes from the pedestals of the Corporation bins, the whole a crazy paving of granite setts, redbrick, black brick, glass-block and concrete, interspersed with random lumps of poorly conglomerated tarmac. What a total tip. - Yours, etc.,
Brian Lucey, Sallins Bridge, Sallins, Co Kildare.