Planning limits blamed for poor phone signals
The Black Valley in Kerry is designated ‘high special amenity area’ and ‘secondary special amenity area’ in the 2003 Kerry county development plan.
Development is highly regulated in this area and attempts by telecommunications operators to provide coverage, via sensitively placed infrastructure, in the area were unsuccessful.
The Kerry county development plan prevents mobile operators from locating base stations within certain distances of designated buildings and amenities.
This new provision was signed in 2003 against the advice of Kerry County Council’s forward planners.
The councillors themselves authorised this provision in the development plan. Were it not for An Bord Pleanála overturning local authority decisions, it is certain that many existing masts throughout the county would be removed and new masts permitted only in the most remote areas.
There is strong opposition from some councillors to mobile phone infrastructure. In the case of the Kerry county development plan, there is a provision not to erect any masts within designated townlands such as Farmers Bridge, Lissardboola and Dromavally.
No one in Kerry county council has opposed this limitation.
Criminal damage to mobile phone infrastructure in Kerry is a major issue. In 2004, a monopole of a competing mobile operator was taken down in the Fenit area and, in 2003, a monopole used by O2 was cut down in the Beaufort area. The structure has since been re-erected.
I am responsible for the O2 Ireland network and for making sure we offer the best possible mobile phone coverage to all our customers, including those in Kerry.
O2 is committed to investing in Kerry. However, unless and until the current planning restrictions imposed on the mobile operators are removed from the Kerry county development plan, customers in the area will continue to suffer inadequate coverage in certain parts of the county.
Oliver Coughlan
Technology Director
O2 Ireland
76 Lower Baggot Street
Dublin 2
