Sewage plant to ‘ruin’ Murrough

June 1988

LOCAL authorities have been told curtly this week that the siting of a sewage pumping station on the Murrough cannot fit in with the idea that tourism is the best bet for potential development.

In a scathing attack on the proposed development, local resident Claire O’Kelly said it was a shame to make such a proposal in an historical town only a one-hour drive from Dublin and surrounded by Mount Usher, Glendalough and Brittas Bay.

Although secretary of the groups against the siting of the station, Mrs O’Kelly said she was speaking personally when she asked if the authorities were really going to ruin the only stretch of frontage onto the sea by building the plant.

‘ The already industrialised South Quay is suitable both geographically and engineeringly, and after the recession the Murrough has all kinds of possibilities,’ she added.

Mrs O’Kelly felt that there would be a maritime museum, a maritime garden specialising in seaside plants or even a hotel sited there.

‘I think these possibilities are very important, not only for our present day surroundings but for the possible livelihood of our children from ten years or so onwards when the country hopefully will be in quite different financial circumstances,’ she said.

And Mrs O’Reilly concluded: ‘What we could really do with a grant would be to clean up the disgraceful mess of rubbish and dilapidation that trails along the Murrough lakes as a result of the last all time bloomer of siting an industrial estate on a wildlife reserve.’