Sir, - Eileen Battersby's article (February 3rd) came as no surprise to many of us in Kilkenny. What has happened here demonstrates the dearth of planners and the poor standards in our admittedly overburdened engineering departments. The incestuous world our politicians inhabit obviously allows them to delude themselves into thinking that the bodies which their peers have set up to monitor and control planning actually work.
There are many individuals and community bodies in Kilkenny with a keen interest in the development of this city, but many have felt increasingly powerless. While Ms Battersby is quite right to point out the constant damage and threat to our built heritage I think that equal emphasis should have been placed on the mundane and badly planned new buildings and the lack of landscape planning. The poor road design and tolerance of the car reflects our national attitude.
All of this in a city that houses the Heritage Council! Surely it is time that the body is given some real teeth, a larger budget and more staff. The position of a heritage officer in the corporation (shared or not) will bear fruit only if he/she is empowered and will not have to suffer the indignity, as some of the few planners have allegedly suffered within county councils, of all too often being overrulled. - Yours, etc.,
Peter Seaver, Outrath, Kilkenny.