‘Country has gone mad’ claims councillor

Quin county councillor Sonny Scanlan has said the “country has gone mad” after he understood it would cost €6,000 to remove a number of telephone poles, which were holding up footpath works at Quin’s community playground.

Councillor Scanlan tabled a motion at a recent Ennis East Electoral Area meeting recently asking the county engineer when the footpath would be completed from Malachy’s Pub to the new playground in Quin, as the committee wanted to officially open the facility.
He was informed by Eamon O’Dea, senior executive engineer, that the council is awaiting Eircom to place services underground, remove old poles and erect new poles at this location. It was explained that once this work is complete the council will complete the footpath works.
Councillor Scanlan told members that in order to remove the poles there was a charge of €3,000 per pole. He explained that the ESB by comparison were charging between €300 and €400 to remove them.
“This country is gone mad,” he said in respect of the charges the telecommunications company are imposing.
His motion was supported by Councillor Johnny Flynn who said the telephone company was “treating the local authority with disdain”.
Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Scanlan stressed that services are already in place for the cables currently being supported by the poles.
It was confirmed by Mr O’Dea since the meeting that Clare County Council has paid €6,400 plus VAT to Eircom for the removal of three existing poles, the erection of one new pole, the supply of 140m of cable and a quantity of domestic cables and the supply of manhole covers.
Mr O’Dea said the work is currently being undertaken by Eircom and that when these works are complete that the council are “intent on carrying out” and completing footpath works from Malachy’s to the playground in Quin. He added it is hoped this could be started by the end of the week.