Stop messing about with our Roman road

I COULDN’T believe my eyes while out on the Western Road in Cork for my afternoon walk recently. The promenade on the north side of the avenue was being replaced with a pathway.

This promenade was the pride and joy of Victorian Cork, when our forbears had to contend with open sewers and vile stenches, not to mention the unsanitary conditions in city's heart.

This is a clear case of robbing Peter to pay Paul in a project known ironically as the Green Routes, conjuring up a picture of an environment-friendly approach to pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users.

But the Trojan Horse has to be facilitated and our existing heritage destroyed; the existing cycleway along the Western Road will be taken away so that the golden calf of the 21st century can be facilitated. Push over, bicycle, and make way, Bus Éireann.

Great George's Street was conceived as early as 1730 as a tree-lined avenue by the Wide Streets Commissioners. Now with all the technology underneath the pavement, it is less and less popular among engineers despite the fact that the leaves absorb pollutants and soot particles and provide colour contrast and a micro-climate and habitat for birds and insects.

This is a Roman road long, straight and even. Why mess about with it after nearly three centuries when, among other things, it proved capable of taking the Muskerry railway and a wide gauge rail at the beginning of the last century.

Festina lente hasten slowly.

Tomás Ó Scannláin

Woodbrook Road

Bishopstown

Cork.