Sir, - On March 8th and again on March 9th your paper carried reports focusing primarily on a single aspect of the draft development plan which has just been adopted by Wicklow County Council.This treatment has done little service to your readers and some injustice to the debate which has been taking place in Wicklow county and its council over the past few months. As I featured in a rather dramatic headline in your paper on Tuesday I would now like to put the proposals on which your paper choose to focus into their context.As your readers will know, Wicklow has witnessed a phenomenal increase in population in recent years. In this context it makes absolutely no sense in a county development plan simply to plan for additional housing. This would violate every principle of sustainable development. At present we in Wicklow witness the consequences of past mistakes in this regard with thousands of people commuting daily to Dublin on roads which are inadequate and public transport which is even more inadequate still.It is logical, therefore, to plan for the creation of employment zones in the county to serve the employment needs of both the present and the projected population. The question then arises of where employment zones should be sited. The logical answer is to locate on or close to the main transport corridor and as close as possible to the projected population centres. These points were made by myself and others during the debates in the county council - and ignored in The Irish Times reports.The main transport arteries through Co Wicklow's most populated region are the main Dublin/Rosslare road, the N11, and the railway line. The latter has been seriously underfunded for generations, is composed almost exclusively of obsolete single track and is further complicated by the fact that it is a commuter line for most of its distance. The main transport route options for business traffic is, therefore, the N11.The situation in the eastern half of the county is further complicated by the fact that many of the population centres such as Greystones, Kilcoole, Arklow and even Wicklow town, where the historical industrial zone is on the Murrough, are served by very poor road networks. This was one of the reasons why I opposed the additional zoning of approximately 90 acres of land in Greystones for industry and to recommend instead that it be designated "green belt", and that the "economic/employment zone" for Greystones, Delgany/Kilcoole/ Newtown be located on the N11. These submissions were ignored in The Irish Times reports.In the case of the Wicklow Town/Rathnew/Glencaly/Ashford area the draft development plan, whatever its other merits, failed to locate any zone for economic development. Indeed the only "development" proposed by the council's planners in this area in recent times was the creation of a mega-dump at Ballynagran. Without a proper integrated plan, Wicklow Town and its surrounding villages will become a "dormitory" area. The only proposal put forward in this area for the creation of an employment zone was the proposal of a business park at Rathnew. That proposal was endorsed by the Wickow Chamber of Commerce, by the Rathnew Development Association and by the bulk of the local business community. Indeed, in the majority of the letters which were received in my office on the issue, most of those who opposed the proposal made the point that they were not against the creation of employment in the area but that they were concerned about how the area would be served by infrastructure, about possible flooding and about the wisdom of bringing forward the proposals before the promised Ashford/Rathnew Development Plan.The compromise put forward by me at the council and so dramatically portrayed in The Irish Times addressed these concerns, provides a breathing space for council staff to assess the infrastructural impact and, at the same time, does not deny the Rathnew/Wicklow/Ashford communities at least some prospect of proper balanced and sustainable development in the future.Finally, to paraphrase Shaw, my apologies for writing to you at such length on this matter. It is an issue of such complexity that it does not lend itself to more succinct or tabloid treatment. - Yours, etc., Dick Roche,TD, MCC, TC, Herbert Terrace, Bray, Co Wicklow.