Hangin’ On The Turkey Oak

The secret garden…

n Bord Pleanála have this week approved an application filed by Cignal Infrastructure Ltd for a 35m replica pine tree mast at the old Luisne HQ.

Telecommunications masts disguised as trees being the latest craze when it comes to commerce being at con with nature.

The original August 2022 application #22855 reads…

To erect a 35m replica pine tree multi-user telecommunications support structure carrying antenna and dishes enclosed within a 2.4 metre high palisade fence compound together with associated ground equipment cabinets and associated site works including an extension to an existing access track. The development is located within the curtilage of a protected structure.

Back in 2022, Cllr Tom Fortune had called upon Wicklow County Council to refuse the planning application, arguing that “this is a serious health and safety issue“, and that the proposed location on the former convent lands “is totally unsuitable for such a structure“.

The Kilcoole councillor continued, “There is an existing national school on the footprint of this land, with 600 children. In addition there is an approved planning application to build St Catherines Special Needs School for 190 pupils and a nursing home with 109 rooms on the land too, for 190 pupils, as well as a secondary school with 820 students nearby.”

That the Cignal pre-validation was filed without any public consultation, and with the main planning notice on the gate pier “subsumed into the white pier”, had Fortune dismissing the mast application as “lazy” and “totally opportunistic”.

Objections were filed by, among others, neighbours the Board of Management of Kilcoole Primary School and Darragh Flynn from The Happy Pear farm.

You can check out the Cignal Infrastructure Ltd case #315658 over on An Bord Pleanála’s website here.