Dear Madam, - I noted with interest your piece about the launch of the new Crom Cot in last week’s paper. My family and I were at Crom last week and I noticed the Cot moored at the pier by the National Trust Visitor Centre and very fine it looked.

I note also the comments from Minister Foster about her wish to expand the tourism potential of Fermanagh and the surrounding area. One thing that she and her counterpart from Dublin could do is to actually get the Monaghan – Clones canal project moving.

For years there have been endless meetings, discussion groups, project assessments etc etc etc , many of which have been funded by various cross-border peace initiatives and other EU grants but so far as actually starting work on restoring the canal – absolutely nothing! If Minister Foster and her fellow ministers from the Republic are really serious about promoting tourism in the border area then why don’t they put an end to the seemingly endless series of discussions and project assessments and actually get the project underway?

A restored canal would bring enormous benefit to the area, Clones is a dying town – indeed if you walk up Fermanagh Street you would conclude that it is already dead. The canal would bring new life to the town and it could once more see a future as a busy, lively attractive town, as it once was.

So, how about less talk and a little more positive action from the elected representatives from both sides of the border?

Yours faithfully, George Lunt Lynchetts, Woolley Street, Bradford on Avon, Wilts