Sir, - As project architects for the Bray Civic Centre, may we take the opportunity to reply to a number of points raised by Mareta Michael (February 18th).
Far from causing "chaos", the civic centre will incorporate a comprehensive traffic management plan prepared by Ove Arup and Partners, one of the world's largest engineering practices. This approaches the anticipated increased traffic flows on two fronts essentially.
1. By means of a traffic modelling programme called TRANSYT, devised by the Ministry of Transport in the UK, whereby all the traffic lights will be synchronised to enable current traffic flows to be improved by up to 20 per cent.
2. By a commuter plan which reduces car use by promoting alternatives such as cycling, public transport, car sharing and walking. This is not simply an aspiration; it is a process that is working very well in the US and in Europe and is being actively promoted in Dublin while tying in generally with the policy recommendations of the Dublin Transportation Office.
Approximately 300 vehicles, not 400, will be travelling in and out of the centre from the Main Street. A considerable number are already doing so under the existing use of the site. Furthermore, with the exception of a small number of surface spaces for disabled drivers, all of the parking will be underground.
There are indeed plans to provide secure facilities for 650 bicycles, but this should be viewed as a very positive aspect which will encourage more people to leave their cars at home, especially as changing rooms and showers will be provided for all those cycling to work in the civic centre.
All of this is part of a plan to create a high degree of pedestrianisation within the scheme, which, together with the inclusion of a piazza, linear park, sculpture garden and other landscaping works, will create a new, living town within the centre of Bray.
In relation to the three- and four-storey office blocks, these will be located at the centre of the site and in scale with the surrounding environment. A number of existing residential homes adjoining the site are already three and four storeys high.
While every effort was made to incorporate St Cronan's building into the scheme, this proved impossible if we were to achieve the type of public open space (the piazza) surrounded by the new civic office, commercial buildings and town theatre planned for the scheme. The positive benefits of this will far outweigh the loss of St Cronan's.
Finally, it should be pointed out that Emmet Park has never been a public open space. It is a privately owned parcel of land which was inevitably going to be developed at some stage or another. Under the civic centre plan, however, it will be more accessible to the public than ever before. - Yours, etc., Colum O'Broin,
Colum O'Broin & Associates, The Maltings, Bray, Co Wicklow.