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Right of Reply
Dear Editor,
In last week's Newsletter you published a letter that contained inaccurate statements regarding a proposed development at the top of Esker Hill and implied a link between this development and the entirely unrelated removal of damaged trees along a section of the Lucan Road between St Joseph's school and Lucan village.
The author of the letter wrote '....the full details of the permission sought is on a pillar ....'. This claim is seriously inaccurate as there is only a very brief description of the proposed development in the notice on the pillar; just 75 words with no details of the myriad reports, drawings and maps that make up the planning application.
The author further wrote 'Bad enough magnificent trees are being felled, but houses being put in place of them on such an impressive stretch of road that some may have taken for granted!'. This is a bogus suggestion. The current planning application for 8 houses at Esker Hill does not encompass any of the forest land, it involves a wholly separate section/folio of land and even a cursory inspection of the planning application file would have shown this. It is seriously misleading to imply that houses might be erected in place of recently felled trees along the Lucan Road.
The forested land along this stretch of Lucan Road had not been maintained for at least 50 years up to 2020 and many of the trees were/are in poor condition. Following arborist's tree survey of a section of this land a significant number of trees that posed a hazard to people and vehicles walking or driving along the Lucan Road were felled & removed last year. Other trees were reduced (i.e., reduced in height) as their condition required. The arborist's survey report was copied to the Council's Parks and Roads departments and they supported its conclusions. There has been a reduction in the number of trees in this section of the forest but more importantly there has been a huge improvement to the safety of pedestrians and vehicles using this section of the Lucan Road.
Lastly, it is disappointing that inaccurate statements and bogus suggestions were published when even a modicum of checking on the internet could have provided the facts.
E. Brennan.
Reminder
Section 40 of the Wildlife Act prohibits any person to cut any hedges/trees/shrubs from 1st March until 31st August to protect our nesting birds – so gardeners get busy now before the
1st March.
From a reader
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