Cherishing our heritage is important, but there needs to be some latitude

High in the hills 29km from Rome lies Hadrian's Villa. It was built at Tivoli by Emperor Hadrian (of Hadrian's Wall fame) in the second century as a means of escape from the noise, but especially the smells, of the city in the high heat of summer. By any standards, it was a fine little 'getaway', comprising a 250-acre complex of 30 buildings, including palaces, baths, a theatre, temples and libraries, built in Greek and Egyptian styles. Hadrian's villa itself centres around a small house in the middle of a pool accessed by drawbridges where the emperor could cut himself off from his minions. Equally sumptuous was his palace at Palatine Hill in Rome, although it was said he disliked the place. When he died in 130AD, the villa at Tivoli was used by various successors but, during the decline of the Roman Empire, it fell into disuse and was partially ruined. Today, it is visited by thousands of people from around the world. Although it is but a shadow of its former self, it has the ruins of palaces, several thermae (bathrooms to you and me), theatre, temples, libraries, state rooms and quarters for the staff. For the archaeological tourist, the place is a dream. Rome itself is one large open air museum, with a necklace of antiquities spreading throughout the city. However, Hadrian's villa brings Roman life, especially that of the emperors, vividly to life. But there is a cloud on the horizon. Eighteen centuries after Hadrian's time, the local administration, or 'county council', has plans to build a massive rubbish dump in an old quarry near the villa. The resultant public reaction? Sdegno! Outrage. Into the fray charges Prince Urbano Barberini, a farmer, descendant of Pope Urbano VIII, and who has the dubious honour of being an extra in a James Bond film, 'Casino Royale'. He is marshalling local farmers to battle against the scheme which, he says, will ruin the UNESCO-listed buildings. He doesn't spare himself in the use of colourful analogies to describe the council's plan. "This is like dumping rubbish next to the Pyramids - what if tourists have to time their visits according to which way the wind is blowing?" Equally trenchant on the other side of the ecological coin is Renata Polverini, the governor of the region of Lazio, who says: "There will be no going back on this, there can be no hesitation." As if the country's president, Giorgio Napolitano, doesn't have enough problems (with the government of Silvio Berlusconi going for a bunga bunga), he is being asked to do something, anything, to stop the dump scheme. What, you may well ask, has this got to do with County Meath? Here in this glorious county, we have one of the finest examples, not only in Ireland, but in western Europe, of the type of tomb known as a passage grave. Its probable date of erection is about 3,000BC and belongs to a time when stone, not metal, was the everyday material for tools and weapons. Perhaps not as sumptuous as Hadrian's villa (Newgrange, after all, was for the dead, not the living), it is, along with Knowth and Dowth, an outstanding jewel in the crown of archaeological heritage. As a national monument, it is in the care of the Office of Public Works - and a fine job it does, too. And we can say without hesitation that there is no plan to build a dump anywhere near the Brú na Bóinne complex. It wouldn't have a chance of getting off the drawing board. However, it also has to be said that plans for a house, big or small, would also never see the light of day if they were projected for a site in this area. There has been much talk about the 'buffer zone' around the Brú na Bóinne complex, within which development is carefully controlled by the State and local agencies. And who could possibly disagree with that? Certainly, some people who own land and live in the area. A landowner might want to give a site for a house to a son or daughter but a local stipulation insists that this person must be fully engaged in farming in the area. Otherwise, planning permission is denied. And there are other complaints - that the authorties are pushing out the boundaries to such an extent that a person would not get planning permission within several miles. We cherish our heritage and it is our duty to care for it, but should that mean that we deny the living the right to reside in a properly planned home which does not impact on the Brú na Bóinne complex? I don't think so.