Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk committee’s remit is expanded along with members
The Wicklow PeopleThe elected members of Wicklow County Council have agreed to expand the remit of the Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk Management Committee.
The move came during their December monthly meeting after the Cliff Walk Taskforce, led by Tánaiste Simon Harris, promised to implement “both short- term and medium-term solutions”.
This decision came after Deputy Harris conceded at a meeting last week that there was “palpable frustration in our community” over the near five-year closure of the treasured amenity.
The meeting of the taskforce took place in Government Buildings and while there was talk of “progress”, along with a pledge to look at “short-term” and “medium-term” measures, there was no mention of a firm long-term strategy, nor was there any firm commitment made on behalf of the State to bankroll to fund the works.
Estimates are coming in at €6m from the councillors in Bray, and some €1.5-2m from the Greystones side, based on a recent ‘Cost Estimate for Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk’ report.
The meeting was attended by the chief executive of Wicklow County Council, the chief executive of Irish Rail, the National Park and Wildlife Service and Fáilte Ireland and it was agreed that the recommendations laid out in the most recent engineering report provided by the expert group RPS, would be implemented “in the shortest possible time frame”.
The Tánaiste also committed the Government to funding “the hiring of the professional expertise to turn the RPS report into an actionable plan to ensure the sustainability of the walk into the future”. Wicklow County Council believes procuring such professional services can begin before Christmas and conclude early in the new year.
It was also agreed that while this work is vital, it will be necessary, as per the RPS report, to take measures to get the walk back open in the short term, and Wicklow County Council and Irish Rail both committed to working to achieve this and adopting the actions in the report which fall to both organisations.
The Tánaiste said he would reconvene the taskforce again in two weeks for an update on the progress on the short-term reopening. He stressed that everyone should work to get the walk reopened, or as much of it as possible, by March 2026.
All members agreed to work to this timeline.
During the council’s meeting on Monday, elected members considered proposals to reform the Cliff Walk Management Committee to become an implementation body to oversee the next steps. The new structure would also crucially involve representatives of groups such as the ‘Friends of the Cliff Walk’, alongside local councillors and relevant statutory bodies.
Opening the discussion chair of the committee Cllr Erika Doyle informed members that a meeting was held on the back of the Tánaiste’s statement.
“We did discuss the terms of reference, and we did discuss expanding the terms of reference to include representation from local groups, a representative from Bray and a representative from Greystones.
“We did not decide a method on deciding who that should be, but certainly there are representative groups that have made themselves known that are very involved and have been from the start and I would welcome their engagement on the committee.”
Cllr Stephen Stokes, already a member of the committee, also supported the proposal.
“I certainly welcome the RPS report and the positive statement from the task force. I warmly welcome that it looks like we should be able to secure funding for the work that’s needed. I think it’s absolutely vital.
“The Cliff Walk means a great deal to us in the Greystones Municipal District as it does in the Bray Municipal District. And for people from around Ireland and across the world that like to use it. I am quite keen that we move it along as efficiently as we can, and I will certainly do everything I can to support it.
“I welcome the fact that we’re looking to bring in additional members from the community. I think it’s a reasonable proposal, because we can then look at it again to see in the future if we need to expand it further again, because in the future we may have other stakeholders, whether it is from business or residents’ groups or other external bodies that we may want to bring in.”
Meanwhile Cllr Joe Behan paid tribute to members of the community who have lobbied the council to reopen the amenity.
“There are two representatives of the Friends of the Cliff Walk group sitting in the gallery today, Peter Murtagh and Dermot O’Dwyer. From my point of view, they have done such a huge public service by consistently highlighting the fact that the Cliff Walk needs to be open as a matter of urgency.
“In fact, they physically did work to help people to get on to it again.
“From my point of view one of the things that needs to happen is, the newly expanded Cliff Walk committee should be meeting this week, if not next week, with the relevant council officials to have a plan of action in place so that we do not lose any more time on this.”
Cllr Behan doesn’t believe inviting one representative from Bray and one representative from Greystones is enough.
“I think there should be two representatives to be quite blunt about it, two representatives from the Friends of the Cliff Walk, two representatives from among the bodies who actually do work on the cliff on the Bray Head side of the Cliff Walk on a regular basis as volunteers or people involved in the Bray Head committee, people who have a genuine interest as the Friends of the Cliff Walk have.”
Cllr Behan also highlighted how business owners on the Greystones side have suffered losses due to the lack of the Cliff Walk being available for consumers and tourists to visit.
“I would think there’s a very strong case for a businessperson from Bray and a businessperson from Greystones to be invited on to that committee. That makes six from the outside.”
Cllr Behan also suggested the number of councillors sitting on the committee should be increased.
“I think to any councillor from Bray or Greystones who wishes to be a member and wishes to attend.”
There was widespread support from district councillors in both Bray and Greystones for the proposal with chief executive Emer O’Gorman also pledging her support.
“There is an impetus there now because funding has been provided and committed to for the lifetime of the project. We will work towards a short-term solution, but it is dependent on other bodies being open to those suggestions and we will work with those stakeholders in that regard.
“We talked about this at the task force about the need for a collaborative work approach across all the stakeholders that have an interest in the cliff head.
“There’s a draft terms of reference that has been prepared by the existing Cliff Walk management committee, that can be certainly amended to reflected expanded membership as proposed, and that can commence straight away.
“So, we will certainly proceed on that basis,” she added.