Latest Cliff Walk Committee Meeting Abandoned

Same as it ever was…

atest report from The Friends Of The Cliff Walk, issued on Friday, March 13th 2026…

The latest meeting of Wicklow County Council’s Cliff Walk Management Committee was abandoned yesterday because not enough members turned up.

There is now no possibility whatsoever of any part of the Cliff Walk being reopened officially by St Patrick’s Day, March 17th — a target date that everyone accepted was ambitious and possibly unrealisable.

However, it was supported by the Tánaiste’s Task Force, of which Wicklow County Council is a member, and it was supported also by Friends of the Cliff Walk as, in our view, it helped to concentrate minds.

Thursday’s meeting of the Management Committee was the fourth since it was reconstituted earlier this year to include community representatives. The committee, which did not meet once during the life of the previous council when the Cliff Walk was closed over five years ago, has a remit to oversee the implementation of whatever measures are necessary to remediate the causes behind the Council’s closure decision.

Present for Thursday’s meeting, in Greystones Municipal District Council offices, were councillors Tom Fortune (Greystones), Joe Behan (Bray) and Stephen Stokes (Greystones), plus community representatives Peter Murtagh (Friends of the Cliff Walk), Donal Enright (Bray Head Residents Association), Keith Scanlon (an environmentalist from Delgany) and Aaron Byrne (a rural recreational officer with the County Wicklow Partnership, put forward for membership by Sport Ireland).

We understand a number of councillors were out of the country, and others, including Adam Kelly of Friends of the Cliff Walk, had prior work commitments. Some, it is believed, had signalled their inability to attend.

Another community representative who attended told the meeting he had taken a day off work and was disappointed this was now wasted.

For meetings to proceed, there must be a quorum. In this instance, the quorum includes four councillors, plus one more – i.e. five. At today’s meeting, councillors present included Mr Fortune, Mr Behan, and Mr Stokes with Councillor Erika Doyle (Bray) in the chair.

When it was apparent there was no quorum, Cllr Doyle said she was inclined to proceed with the meeting, while recognising that decisions, such as adopting the minutes of the previous meeting or passing motions, could not be taken.

A question had been asked previously by Friends of the Cliff Walk and an answer to that could be given. While thanking Cllr Doyle for that suggestion, Peter Murtagh said he felt it more appropriate if the answer was given at a full meeting of the committee where it could be discussed. Cllr Behan supported that position.

Cllr Doyle offered to have the latest report from the Council’s external engineering consultants RPS read to the meeting and community representative Donal Enright supported this, saying he was anxious to learn what progress made been made regarding rope abseil inspections of the Bray Head rockface.

The Council’s Bray area Manager, Jackie Carroll, read the report. It said that several experts had recently inspected the rock face and had discussed potential remediation options and any environmental regulatory requirements that might be necessary.

A number of items were noted and are to be progressed. The report will be circulated to committee members and Friends of the Cliff Walk will provide a more substantial briefing as to its contents as soon as possible.

Believed to be photographer Robert French…

There was broad agreement thereafter that the committee needed to look again at how it was functioning and whether meetings could be held at times more conducive to more members and whether some might be had remotely using Zoom, etc.

This report is provided by Friends of the Cliff Walk to its supporters because the media is excluded from reporting on committee meetings.

You can find out more about recent Cliff Walk shenanigans here, explore its history here, and check out Friends of The Cliff Walk here.