Business Leaders & Personalities Gather To Outline Temporary Alternative To Push Cliff Walk Reopening

Reopening the Bray–Greystones cliff walk could see a temporary alternative route put in place as a means by which to end its five-year closure, after plans were presented to councillors at a public meeting in Greystones last night

Proponents of reopening of the Bray to Greystones cliffwalk have suggested a temporary alternative solution to end the five-year-long closure of the popular trail.

At a public meeting at Temple Carrig School, Greystones they outlined to councillors and cliffwalk task force members how they want to be involved in speeding up the process.

They have suggested using an alternative route from Bray Promenade to Bray Head Cross to Silver gate to the Grove Railway Crossing and onto Greystones Marina.

Friends of the Cliffwalk have often said the prolonged closure, now entering its fifth year, continues to inflict serious economic, social, and health damage on the local community and pointed to an economic analysis by economist Jim Power, which previously estimated that the closure of the walk is costing the local economy approximately €3.5m per year, with the loss of 77 jobs in tourism and hospitality in the local area.

Wicklow-born broadcaster Craig Doyle told East Coast FM news how its galling to see vast private development in the area but a complete neglect of local amenities..

''Really frustrated, I guess, more than angry and disappointed because it's such a brilliant amenity and it's so gorgeous. And maybe we're so used to it because it's been here all our lives. But, you know, when you're up there and strangers are coming through, people have come in from wherever in the world and they see it for the first time, they bet they can. Well, they're blown away by it. Yet it doesn't seem important enough to fix, which seems crazy to me.

Either end of that cliff walk, there are new housing developments being built and new apartment blocks and all this money put into the private sector are making profits from all these developments yet.

Nobody's sort of asking them for a few quid to fix this incredible piece of natural infrastructure we have and that drives me absolutely bananas. It's a kind of Wicklow-wide problem to be honest. Development happening everywhere except in the area of public amenity. So it does frustrate me but we'll get it open. The crowd here tonight were really positive and vocal and passionate and that usually gets the job done. So yeah, but we can't, not another five years. That would be just crazy.''

Stephen Flynn of The Happy Pear told East FM News at the meeting last night that business matters are consistently compromised by the endless closure and says action is essential to try and offset the ongoing problem:

'' As a small business, any business that has a 20% drop in sales is going to struggle. We're a business with tight margins. We're in an economy that is a cost of living crisis. A 20% drop in sales has really affected our business, meaning it's harder to employ people, meaning it's just harder. And there's simple solutions.''

He urged the local authority to step up their game and reopen the cliffwalk citing the closure of a prominent restaurant business in Greystones.

''I guess I feel frustrated and really sad about it and Wicklow County Council know it's affecting small business and I know their intention is to open it but it's intention is enough. We're asking for them to solve it and to use this task force to actually get it open as soon as possible because it really is affecting small businesses. Bocelli's closed three weeks ago and one of the factors that Declan cited was that the closure of the cliff walk is really affecting his business.''

Journalist Peter Murtagh, a prominent member of Friends of the Cliff Walk has spent vast amounts of time behind the campaign to open up the cliffwalk. He's told East Coast FM News of his frustrations, citing comparable sites of natural beauty in many of the countries that he's travelled to in what might happen with such a site of natural beauty and quality.

'' It is frustrating and we are disappointed and it's kind of ridiculous. I've been lucky enough in my life that I've done a fair bit of foreign travel and you go to other countries and we have so much beauty here in Ireland. We have so much outdoor beauty, natural beauty, etc. You go to other countries and you see things like the cliff walk that are used, they're celebrated, people enjoy them, etc, etc. And if something goes wrong, it's fixed. Here we are five years down the road. Five years!''

He's exasperated!

''It's absolutely incredible that nothing has been done to actually fix the problem. A little bit has been done to talk about it and to analyse it, but to fix it, nothing has been done. And businesses are really suffering. And as we heard tonight from experts in the field, the community is suffering and mental health is suffering. This is not a good situation.''

He says the people who can address the problem are clearly in sight

''So, you know, the people who could do something about this, who are the officials of Wicklow County Council and the Tánaiste and central government, have to get their act together.''

Wicklow County Council officially shut the route in February 2021 due to safety concerns posed by coastal erosion and rock fall.