Coonagh man stages protest over ‘foul smell’ near home

A man who complained to Limerick City Council about foul smells from a storm water pipe on a road near his home in Coonagh had his van towed away recently because it was allegedly causing an obstruction.

Patsy Perrill, who lives on Johnnie’s Road in Upper Coonagh, said on Wednesday, December 1 he was approached by two gardaí who advised him that his car, which was parked outside his front wall, was causing an obstruction and would have to be moved.
He said the gardaí spoke to council workers who were working on a public road nearby, who stated they couldn’t give a guarantee that one of their machines wouldn’t hit his van accidentally if they were passing by.
According to Mr Perrill, who is a member of Clare County Council’s Environment Strategic Policy Committee, a few years ago he moved his own boundary wall back a few feet and built a new block wall. He insisted his van was parked on his own property and was not causing an obstruction.
Mr Perrill claimed that, despite his pleas, a low loader came and towed his van away, forcing him to pay €125 to get it back out of a city compound and another €22 in a taxi to get there.
He believes that the visit of the gardaí may be linked to his complaint to the city council about the alleged discharge of foul sewer to a storm water pipeline on Coonagh Lane.
Before gardaí departed, Mr Perrill told them his protest wasn’t over and that he would continue his campaign to try and get this issue resolved. He proceeded to get a placard out of his house and continued for about an hour walking up and down the public road.
Mr Perrill claimed two different gardaí came to the scene and advised him that he was conducting an “illegal protest”. He insisted he was conducting a peaceful protest, wasn’t obstructing anyone and was entitled to carry a placard up and down the road.
At this stage it was getting dark and Mr Perrill claimed one of the gardaí informed him that he was acting illegally and would be arrested if he continued this protest the following day.
Inspector John O’Reilly said the gardaí couldn’t comment on an individual case.
The following day, Mr Perrill contacted city council senior executive engineer, John O’Shaughnessy and discussed the issue with him. He said on Friday, December 3, Mr O’Shaughnessy visited the site and inspected the manhole with the pipeline, not by arrangement and Mr Perrill happened to see him from his own house and pointed out the difficulty being caused by the waterpipe.
He acknowledged that Mr O’
Shaughnessy had pledged to investigate the issue in a letter written to him following his previous complaint and had assured him the matter would be taken up with an engineer once he returned from leave.
Mr Perrill said nothing had happened in the last week and wondered why roadworks had suddenly stopped on Coonagh Lane.
He said a public sewerage system should be provided for the entire Coonagh area because of the number of large-scale developments, such as Tesco Shopping Centre, Travel Lodge Hotel, Clondrinagh Industrial Estate, Shannon Rugby Club and Limerick Flying Club.
Mr O’Shaughnessy explained most of the major developments had their own sewerage treatment facilities, which were pumped to a main sewer, other areas had on-site treatment systems, some developments had proprietary systems, while some one-off dwellings had sceptic tanks.
Acknowledging there was a foul odour on the road when he visited the site, Mr O’Shaughnessy noted it wasn’t yet proven if this foul discharge emanated from the storm sewer or another source.
He explained the council issued a request to the roads department that current untrapped gullies be changed for trapped gullies as part of the road-resurfacing programme.
He confirmed that he was waiting for an engineer to return from annual leave and pledged the council would continue to investigate the matter until it was proven that the odour wasn’t being caused by sewerage. If the council discovered that the odour was caused by sewerage, he added, appropriate action would be taken.
Mr O’Shaughnessy explained roadworks had ceased because the sub-contractor carrying out the work was experiencing serious financial difficulties and the council is now sourcing another contractor.