When pioneers felt their women and children were under threat from marauding savages, they circled their wagons and fought back.
Perhaps taking a leaf from Westerns of old, the inhabitants of a leafy Knocknacarra enclave have circled their saloons and SUVs around a patch of grass, to block access to installers of an 18 foot-high communications mast.
Last Monday, residents of Carragh Hill – an elevated estate off the Knocknacarra Road with stunning views of Galway city and Galway Bay – awoke to find a massive hole had been dug in a patch of grass near a central green where children play. Contractors informed them they were excavating foundations for an 18 foot, 5G comms mast, and two ancillary telecoms cabinets.
By Saturday, Carragh Hill’s plucky residents say they had two ministers – Hildegarde Naughton and Noel Grealish - John Connolly TD, and a rake of local councillors out, looking into the hole. None were particularly keen on photographs for the historical record, according to people present when the Advertiser visited.
The Carragh Hill Residents’ Association say local people were mostly annoyed about lack of consultation before works began in a public space of their neighbourhood, for which they contribute a €120 annual management fee, and also voluntarily maintain themselves. The exact spot where a mini digger began excavating last week is where Santa’s grotto usually sits at Christmastime.
Normally a planning notice would be erected for any works, but communications infrastructure within certain parameters only needs a licence under Section 254 of the 2000 Planning and Development Act, similar to scaffolding, outdoor furniture, kiosks or vending machines. Importantly, those obtaining such licences do not need to display them in public, unlike a normal planning notice.
The Residents called an Extraordinary General Meeting last night to agree on a plan. It is expected they will lodge a complaint against the telecoms licence, and are currently in the process of determining exactly who owns small strips of grass and shrubs alongside their central green, as it is understood it was never taken in charge by Galway City Council.
“We’re meeting to agree a plan. We have legal and engineering advice in the association, and we’re hunting down land folios and other documents to determine who exactly owns this space, as companies who built this community of 104 homes, going back to the 1970s, were wound up a long time ago,” says residents’ chairman, David Hannon.
“If the council do not own this land, then they cannot give it away,” he added.
Locals are texting each other daily if they need to use their cars, so any gap in this automotive palisade can be quickly filled by another.
The wagons stay circled for now.
