Sir, - In recent days we have had some very exciting TV and newspaper images of young people in the Glen of the Downs "locked on" to oil drums full of concrete or swinging through the trees to frustrate the attempts of the County Council to get on with their work.
Could we have a picture or two of the huge line of cars at a virtual standstill there for hours, five days out of every seven? Could we have a reproduction of the pictures which were on show in the County Council offices which showed exactly how little of the Glen is to be affected?
Most of all could we have a picture of the nature trail when it was a nice place to visit, before the arrival of such eco-friendly items as fires, appalling scrap timber, plastic "tree-homes", barbed wire, oil drums, concrete, at least one illegal speed limit sign, and grafitti on the surface of the road?
Of course we are unlikely to see any such balancing imagery, as the "eco-warriors" are far more astute in their use of PR than the Council could ever hope to be. But there are plenty of us out here who are very much in favour of the road-widening plan.
The Council's plan is to improve a road that already exists in this area; it is not to create a new road through virgin countryside. Also, it plans to plant almost 10 times more trees than they will remove - eco-friendly in the extreme.
If the ecologically motivated "warriors" wanted to commit to a far more serious matter than the once-off road widening, they should be asking questions instead about the very serious shortcomings in Wicklow County Council's approach to domestic waste management; from December 31st the Council will cease to collect household waste - just like that! - Yours, etc.
(Capt) John Dunne M.N.I., Dunbur Park, Wicklow.