Madam, - Much time and money have been and are being spent on the enhancement of the whole St. Stephen's Green area. Rightly so: it is a wonderful centre of excellence for Dubliners, visitors and tourists alike.
It is all the more of a disgrace, therefore, that as soon as a stretch of pavement is beautifully and expensively relaid, along comes yet another communications company to dig a trench the length of it, haphazardly refill the trench and seal it with black Tarmac, thus creating an ugly, black, uneven line down the middle of the golden paving slabs.
It may well cost more to lift the slabs rather than noisily cut through them, but that is no reason to desecrate them.
This unpleasant desecration of pavements is happening all over Dublin, but to fully appreciate the damage, the north side of St. Stephen's Green must surely rank as the worst case yet.
On a practical, as well as an aesthetic note, the Tarmac softens when the sun deigns to shine and any lady unfortunate to be wearing anything other than the broadest of heel on her shoe will sink into the surface, thus ruining both shoe and elegant poise! - Yours, etc.,
TONY CHEW, Shrewsbury, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.