Anton McNulty
antonmcnulty@mayonews.ie
North Mayo residents living close to the Corrib Gas Project have submitted 104 letters of complaint to Mayo County Council regarding the impact of the construction and haulage work. The letters carry 112 signatures in total.
The residents, who live along the Sruwaddacon Estuary, say they face a daily barrage of convoys of ‘heavy goods vehicles, vans with blacked-out windows, police vehicles and construction traffic’. Copies of the letters have also been sent to Shell, An Garda Síochána, the Private Security Authority of Ireland, ministers and politicians and several environmental and human-rights organisations.
The residents say they are under ‘constant surveillance’ by gardaí and Shell private-security forces.
The residents further claim that landowners were ‘neither consulted nor kept informed’ and that the destruction was carried out ‘covertly’.
On Friday morning, haulage works to both the Aughoose and Glengad construction sites were called off after 30 campaigners took to the roads at Aughoose at 6.45am for a ‘day of solidarity’.
Speaking at the protest, local resident Gerry O’Malley said: “The day of solidarity is the only day of peace we get around here. It’s the only day people can go to work, farmers can tend to their sheep and our children can travel to and from school without fear of obstruction by Shell and the Gardaí. We used to have this peace every day before Shell invaded the community,” he said.
Shell EP Ireland told The Irish Times it was observing ‘several hundred conditions’ attached to planning permissions and permits for the Corrib Gas Project.
“In addition to observing these conditions, we strive at all times to carry out our work in a way that has the least impact on the local community,” the company said.
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