On Mother's Day I went to Virginia and it's hard to say which was worse, suburban Dublin, Meath or Cavan.

On the N3 close to Blanchardstown someone tipped a large amount of rubbish three weeks ago and it is still there. Everywhere there is litter, plastic bags and rubbish. The M3 has turned Meath into a spoil heap and what's green is defaced by signs, hoardings and rubbish. Add in the hedgerows which have been reduced to stumps, removed trees, farmyard junk and fields under plastic and you have a royal mess in a once royal county.

Virginia in Cavan was once the loveliest town in Ireland but it must now be trying for the ugliest. Walk through its centre and look through the gates and arches and you will see that all the old gardens now have either houses in them or they have been cleared to have houses in them, if and when the boom returns. Few are left green, nothing is painted as it once was and there is litter and rubbish everywhere.

That bus journey could be to anywhere in Ireland now. Our politicians and planners are blind. Do they not see what is happening or do they think that investors and tourists will come to this? If we litter, wreck and ruin our land do we think that others will come and build a future for us here? And it must be others because what the past has left us – demesnes, estates, stone buildings, railways, woods and heritage – we Paddies have turned to wreckage.

John White,

29 Ballybough Road,

Dublin 3.