Mud On The Tracks

Over the boardwalk… AUG23

t was back in November 2019 that the plans for Greystones 2020’s €38,000 makeover of the town were finally revealed.

Gráinne and the gang had employed consultancy firm The Paul Hogarth Company to do the research and come up with the best possible bangs for the town’s meagre bucks.

There were meetings, gatherings, public consultations, charts, slogans, artist impressions and a general hooray for all the great work could be done.

And when the results of all that were finally unleashed, they packed quite a heavy dose of Cheryl Cole gobbledygook goals, such as ‘Enhance and protect core assets in the face of change‘.

Who wrote that? George Lucas? Gwyneth Paltrow?

Back in 2019, there was talk of an outdoor venue at the La Touche car park, in behind the train station. Also, there would be outdoor dining and cobblestone streets down at The Burnaby. To name but two pie charts in the sky.

One suggestion that did get a major thumbs up from de peoples – and, more importantly, from town engineer Ruairi O’Hanlon – was a wooden boardwalk down on the South Beach.

2019’s promenade of broken schemes…

And how could you not fall in love with that illustration?

This South Beach Promenade would be there to allow access from that second arch at the car park for people who don’t like sand in their nooks and crannies. There should also be, enthused the Hogart gang, the reinstatement of the traditional beach huts, multicoloured and cute as a row of terraced Cobh houses.

All of which, unsurprisingly, didn’t happen. Turns out that €38,000 makeover consultation has nothing to do with the South Beach boardwalk build begun last Monday.

2023’s real deal…

The moolah for this 150m wooden wonder – costing “in the region of €285,000”, O’Hanlon tells us –  is instead coming from Part 8 funding. More of which, here.

“This boardwalk will look like the simpler image here,” says Rauiri, “but will have a 100mm upstand at the edges to both guide blind people along the edge and also prevents wheelchairs from going over the edge. A similar local example would be the boardwalk through the marsh at the East Coast Nature Reserve in Newcastle.

“The boardwalk will have a number of platform areas where wheelchair users can dwell in comfort without blocking the boardwalk and others can park their buggies, etc. The dwell areas will have ramps down onto the sand itself and we shall repurpose the existing blue matting from the end of these ramps.”

As to the possibility of having a boardwalk all the way down to the sea, the South Beach just isn’t a fit, says O’Hanlon.

“Access to the sea simply isn’t feasible along the South Beach,” he explains, “due to the ever-shifting nature of the sands which form the beach at the water’s edge. The sand can move in height by over 2m and in length by 20m along the seashore.”

Naturally, there have been some complaints since the boardwalk opened. Such as, why the frick isn’t there a ramp at the second arch? Well, turns out Irish Rail have yet to fix the flooding there, and since it’s their domain, the ramp is awaiting their nod so it can be installed.

Which, we assured, will be any day now. Or thereabouts…