Residents shocked and baffled at 15-meter high mast decision
By Aimee Walsh
THERE is shock and disappointment amongst residents as their appeal opposing a telecommunications mast has been lost, following a decision from An Bord Pleanála.
The 15-metre-high telecommunications mast was erected on a public green space, beside the community tennis courts on Sylvan Drive in Kingswood in November 2020.
Residents protesting against the mast plans
The council granted a license for the mast to Cignal Infrastructure Ltd in September last year, however this decision came under consideration by An Bord Pleanála when residents opposed the mast.
Local residents under the name of the Kingswood Heights Mast Opposition Committee lodged an appeal last December – and an enforcement file had been opened “in relation to alleged unauthorised development” of the mast in Kingswood.
On June 1, An Bord Pleanála gave their decision following an investigation into the development of the mast – with the result allowing it to stay in its current location.
Speaking with The Echo, Kingswood resident and member of the opposition committee, Joe Edgeworth said that he received a letter stating the decision by post, which he says is “baffling”.
“To send out an inspector to ratify that the mast should not go up there and that it is contravening certain aspects of a licence application and then to be overruled by its own body – I am staggered.”
Joe says that the committee that was put together put an appeal to An Bord Pleanála, highlighting “every aspect of the regulations that were being broken” and that the decision to keep the mast in the estate is a “hugely disappointing
one”.
“This has been going on a long time, An Bord Pleanála have left us hanging in the lurch.
“I think it is very unfair on the residents who have come out in force to protest against it,” Joe told The Echo.
Joe explained that the mast was erected on a Sunday morning last November, unbeknownst to the residents who live in the area, prompting them to question the council over the application process for erecting the mast.
“I suppose the big thing for us was that some of our green local space was given up for this mast, that went into a road licencing act which it is at least three or four metres away from the road, it is absolutely ridiculous,” continued Joe.
“I am hoping that South Dublin County Council wake up and smell the roses, and that there are issues with their planning application process for these things.
“It is not even an application it is an agreement between a profitable organisation and the council.
“You couldn’t ask for a nicer bunch of people in Kingswood who treated this with the respect that it deserved – they had peaceful protests, engaged with the Gardai and the workers on the site and not once did tempers get frayed and that
is a testament to the people in the area.”
