Bray To Greystones Cliff Walk Campaigners To Oversee Open Public Meeting On Long-Standing Closure

There are increasing concerns from local businesses and the wider community with the ongoing closure of the Cliff Walk and the urgent need for action by Wicklow County Council

Friends of the Cliff Walk, will host a public meeting today at Greystones Sailing Club to address the ongoing closure of the Bray-Greystones Cliff Walk.

The closure, now in its fifth year, is said to have cost the local economy €3.5m annually, while leading to job losses in tourism and hospitality.

They're urging the implementation of short-term solutions identified in a recent report, while filing a complaint with the Ombudsman over apparent council inaction.

Friends of the Cliffwalk member Dermod Dywer,  says the economic impact is far too great for local businesses in Greystones to tolerate:

''Now,  it's not the first time they've done this. They did it again in 2001 to 2005, so they have form, as they say. And they closed it on the grounds that there was some danger to the public, as if the public aren't able to be responsible when they go out into the open and take walks up the Sugarloaf or on the Wicklow Way or somewhere else.

''And their policy of do nothing, which allowed for the dereliction of the Clipwalk over the last four and a half years, has deprived Greystones and Bray of between a quarter of a million and 300,000 visitors a year, with enormous costs and enormous jobs.''

He's outlined the nature of today's meeting and what they hope to achieve.

''So today, we're having a public meeting in the Sailing Club at four o'clock in Greystones, where the Friends of the Cliff walk will be reporting back and they will be joined by business people in Greystones, some of whom have put on record in the last couple of days they can't face another tourism season with the Cliff walk closed.

Another says local shops and businesses are failing and the impact on jobs in the community.

The community in the business have lost faith in local representatives and the local authority, who failed to act. These are direct quotes from business people that will be there today and that have put it up on social media.  So it's something that shouldn't have happened.

It didn't need to happen. And according to our own economic report, there's 346 jobs lost or not created because of the closure. Can you imagine if the Wicklow Way was closed or Kilmacora or Glendalough? In fact, the Wicklow Way is only 24,000 users a year, according to the Uplands Research.

Over 10 times that number were using the Greystones or Bray of Greystones Cliff walk. So today we have a meeting. We want anybody who's listening to this, please turn up.''

He is encouraging as much interaction as possible from near far and wide today.

''It will only take an hour and we'll have a cup of tea and we will report back. And we have a couple of asks, and this is supported by some of the local representatives as well. We want the Tanaiste' taskforce to meet as soon as possible and we understand that the Tanaiste is ready to have that taskforce meet in the first week in November.''

An acknowledgement of a recent engineering report on the Bray Greystones Cliffwalk and a reopening date are some of the demands of Friends of the Cliffwalk.

They'll oversee a public meeting in Greystones today with business owners calling for the reopening of the local amenity which has been shut since 2021.

A meeting of the Bray to Greystones cliff walk taskforce established last year by Tanaiste Simon Harris is to convene shortly.

Pressure has been placed once more Wicklow County CEO Emer O'Gorman to act to reopen the amenity early next year by Cliff walk activist Dermod O'Dywer:

Dermod has called on the county council to step up their game in relation to the cliff walk closure.

''We want Wicklow County Council to accept their own report, the RPS report, to accept the findings in the RPS report. We also note that the Chief Executive last week, or the week before last, in her 89-page report to Wicklow County Council, not one mention of the 80,000 that were sent on the report and not one mention of the cliff walk. And what we want really is that Wicklow County Council appoint one person, one competent person, one competent named person to oversee the implementation of the RPS report, reporting progress to the taskforce.''

They have set out a targeted reopening 

''And the most important of all, you have to have a target. This thing can't go on forever. We want the target of reopening day of St Patrick's Day 2026.

Sadly, the public representatives at the moment, and I'm really sorry to say this because I've worked all my life professionally at the nexus of the public and private sector, but the public representatives in Wicklow, particularly in Bray and Graystones, have been held captive by the local authority with the threat that if they support the reopening of the clipwalk, they're putting people's lives in danger.''

He wants proper, deliberate actionable solutions to the issue:

''I mean, this is just not acceptable. So we expect many public representatives there today and some todays. And we look forward to working with the council.

We're not against the council. We're just, you know, people who want to see the clipwalk reopen. We have no skin in the game, if you like.

This is really for the good of our area. But Wicklow County Council have to stop. Every time there's a problem, they have to stop closing everything down.

That just is not acceptable. There are 800 people employed by Wicklow County Council. And I'm afraid the actions or the inactions over the cliff walk stains all of their reputation.

And that is not fair. Wicklow County Council are a very competent authority. They've won loads of awards for all sorts of things, including one of the best local authorities last year.

Why can they not put the focus onto the cliff walk and get it reopened?''