How to bury a few million euro in the ground

Talking to people along the new path in Swan’s Park suggests that there is almost universal joy at how “nice” it is, “so clean and tidy they say, so beautiful.”

That may be so, BUT at the expense of the environment, where tons of concrete, metal and tar have been pumped into Swan’s Park as if they were going out of fashion.

They have already gone out of fashion everywhere else, in parks and places reserved for the environment.

It is well known that concrete and metal are very carbon expensive materials to manufacture so they are not used unless required to support tall buildings and bridges etc.

Here Donegal County Council is still stuck in the past and still does not have an environmental advisor on its staff to guide them at the planning stages of a project like this.

Over 200 years ago, The Inch Wildlife Reserve was built without concrete and it works effectively today and is teeming with wildlife and a green environment.

We could have copied the tried and tested methods used there to retain Swan Park as a natural place for people of the town to go for some time-out, away from the built environment in the town.

DCC rebuilt the footbridge in the park, with higher walls so that senior citizens, (like myself) and children can no longer see into the river from the bridge, they placed a sandstone cap-stone on top of the wall and people can not lean on the wall and chat.

We will be relieved when the DCC engineers leave the site and the local “Town Gardner” and local staff set about to get some shrubs and trees going again, I hear that they are going to keep a section of it wild and even planning an orchard there in the coming months.

Some say the harm is done, but let’s hope that we can get some re-wilding of Swan’s Park done in the coming years.

Thanks to those who know the difference.