Writes Leo McMahon
A telecommunications mast in a housing estate overlooking the town of Carrigaline and erected without consulting residents, was described as ‘a monstrosity’ at the recent meeting of the county council’s Carrigaline Municipal District (MD).
On the agenda was a motion from an cathaoirleach Cllr Ben Dalton-O’Sullivan (Ind) asking: 1) how many applications were made for masts in the MD under Section(S) 254 of the Planning Act and 2) how many were granted or refused. He also proposed the full council to written to with a request for public consultation on all such applications.
Cllr Dalton-O’Sullivan said his motion originated from a public meeting and he and fellow members attended with residents of Droim an Oir, Kilmoney Road Upper who told councillors that the mast was erected without them knowing or being consulted.
Other structures would normally go through the planning process but these masts were applied for under a licensing arrangement that didn’t require public consultation.
‘Residents woke up, saw this big thing being put up and didn’t know what it was for,’ he stated. ‘They’re quite frustrated that they were not consulted and say it casts a shadow and is quite near a ringfort of historical importance (Kilmoney Lios)’. He urged clarity and for his motion to go to full council to request public consultation as now being done by Dublin local authorities.
Cllr Jack White (FG) concurred. He recalled the shock and upset of residents at the public meeting. Referring to the written response circulated at the MD meeting, he said: ‘A S.254 licence was originally intended for a vending machine, a town map, an advertising structure, a cable, a fence or a telephone kiosk. This is an 18 metre (c59 feet) high pole casting a shadow over the whole of Kilmoney, an awful sight on the town of Carrigaline as a whole, an absolute monstrosity, a disgrace’
There was huge concern in Kilmoney, he continued and there was another mast close to the home and back garden of the Murphy family and others in Passage West.
Cllr White noted that Dublin City Council had added in a notification and public consultation process. He argued that the only suitable place for such masts was inside industrial estates or shopping centre with no impact on dwellings. At the very least, there had to be an amendment to the procedure to ensure consultation and argued it could be made by senior management.
Cllr Patrick Donovan (FF) said he also attended the public meeting and saw the anger and upset. The mast was plonked down in the estate’s only green space where children played and close to a ringfort. There had to be an open and transparent policy if someone was going to come along and put a mast next to a house.
‘This is going to come down the track for the whole of the county, so we need to get ahead and I’m happy to work on a motion to the full council because it’s just not good enough’, he added.
‘Nobody wants to wake up some day and see a mast near their house’, said Cllr Una McCarthy (FG) in support of the motion. Public consultation was essential.
Cllr Audrey Buckley (FF) agreed said it was disgraceful there was no consultation.
Cllr Eoghan Fahy (SF) concurred, saying he spoke to the planning section when the mast was erected in Passage West. He had asked that S.254 applications be included in the list of planning applications councillors received every week but was told it wasn’t. This was not good enough as members needed to engage with people.
Cllr Dalton-O’Sullivan suggested the motion be sent to the council’s Planning Strategic Policy Committee first and re-visited by the MD. MD manager Sharon Corcoran undertook to raise the matter with senior management.
Cllr White said that depending on what came back from the SPC, he still favoured the MD sending the motion to the full council after that. The procedure would eventually have to be changed and the sooner the better. Cllr McCarthy agreed. The motion was adopted.
The report from the council’s planning environment directorate pointed out that applications had been made in the MD for three masts at Carrigaline Industrial Estate and one each at Pembroke, Passage West and Kilmoney Road Upper, Carrigaline. Masts were included under the definition of S.254 licences and an amendment to the application procedure for these would be required in order to provide for a legally robust and enforceable public consultation process.
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