War of words at Mid Ulster council over Hill of the O’Neill phone mast 'monstrosity'

NI Water had previously proposed to jointly develop and manage a feasibility study, facilitated by Atkins, to examine and explore all options to remove, reduce or better disguise the mast, at a cost of £46,000 to Mid Ulster District Council – this being 50% of the total cost.

A business case was completed by NI Water in relation to securing their share of costs, however the utility company have now written to the council to advise that the business case has not been signed off due to funding cuts and insufficient budget within NI Water.

The NI Water letter states: “Due to current restrictions placed upon us by the Department for Infrastructure, our CEO is unable to sign off any new business cases which aren’t deemed essential. Unfortunately, this business case falls into that bracket. Hopefully this will change in the new financial year.

“There is an option for Mid Ulster District Council to pay the full costs for the feasibility study (around £100,000). NI Water will gladly help with the study.”

Speaking at the committee meeting, council chairman, Councillor Dominic Molloy (Sinn Féin, Dungannon DEA) was clearly unhappy and called for Infrastructure Minister, John O’Dowd, to be convened to a site meeting.

“In relation to the telecommunications mast, it’s seriously disappointing, it’s almost an act of bad faith regarding what had been agreed,” said Cllr Molloy.

“We sat down over 12 months ago, and at that stage my understanding was that NI Water were agreeing there and then to a feasibility study to look at the mast, in partnership with the council, and now we’re hearing they rolled back, it’s not in the budget, it’s not a priority for them. Same old, same old.

“We need to be holding them to account and I am suggesting that we write to the now-installed Minister to have them on site to have a look at this, to discuss a move forward as to how we address this going forward as a priority.”

Councillor Barry Monteith (Independent, Dungannon DEA) expressed anger in relation to NI Water’s announcement.

“This is nothing short of a disgrace. This council has been treated atrociously. The people of this town have been treated atrociously.

“This is one of the worst acts of blatant ignorance of opinion right across the board that I have seen in over 20 years as a councillor.

“This way forward was not of our choosing, it was NI Water who wanted to go down this path, it was NI Water who said that this needed to go down this road of a feasibility study, despite repeated requests from elected members for updates [regarding] where we’re at which were met with silence.

“It was to me an act of very good faith by this council to agree to pay for 50% of the costs in the first place, given the fact that this mast is solely the responsibility of of the water folks.

“Over 12 months ago they led us to believe that more or less their end of the bargain was secured.

“I find it incredibly hard to get my head around how this would have been put to tender without them actually having the money to back it up.”

Strategic director of Communities & Place, Ryan Black clarified the matter, saying: “My understanding was that NI Water were looking at appointing through a framework or a contract that they they had in place, and they had been engaging with this company to try and ascertain a price.

“The price that they initially gave us increased, and we went back and sought approval to uplift the amount of money that the council was bringing.

“I would agree with the member’s comments, because I was at the meeting with NI Water, and I was also under the impression that NI Water had agreed to this and [that they] had their finances secured. So it did come as a shock to us.”

Councillor Monteith continued: “That’s the point. How do we initiate a tender process without having the money to go forward with it? I think this is nothing short of a disgrace, because they’re probably going to insist on doing the same thing again and it’ll be even more expensive.

“I think we need to to move this forward or to put the pressure. We’re well past feasibility studies. Everybody knows what the answer is, everybody knows that monstrosity has to go.

“You have to take these people in good faith and at face value, and that has been just basically thrown back in our faces and another 12 months has been wasted.

“Any time they’re brought to the table, and anytime you think that you’re getting anywhere with it, it’s a stalling tactic all the time.

“I think we really need to up the ante on this. We need to seriously look at issues around that site. This is a national heritage site that we’re on, there’s planning permission requests put in all the time for further antennas. That mast would never have received planning permission if it wasn’t there.

“I think we need urgently to get at this, and write to whoever we need to write to. This is one of the worst examples I have seen in my lifetime as a councillor, I can’t stress that enough.

“I was absolutely flabbergasted whenever I read the minutes of the meeting. It is an absolute disgrace.”

Concluding, Councillor John McNamee (Sinn Féin, Cookstown DEA) said: “Cllr Molloy has made a proposal that we invite the Minister on site to have a look at it. I think it’s a disgrace too that they actually asked us, do we want to proceed and pay it all. I’ll second councillor Molloy’s proposal.”