Kildare County Council denied access to Allenwood pump station in land dispute

Kildare County Council is being forced to access a sewage pump station in Allenwood from a manhole outside the station because of a dispute with a landowner.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by local election candidate Brendan Wyse discovered that access to the station and buffer tank at Bluetown, Allenwood has been denied to Irish Water and Kildare County Council staff since November 29, 2017, when the landowner put a lock and chain on the access gate.
The dispute dates back to the time of the land acquisition for the original Allenwood Sewerage Scheme upgrade in 2007.
As a result, council lorries must access waste in the station from a manhole situation outside the gates of the disputed land. Irish Water said: “This is far from ideal, but in the absence of access it is the only way that the public sewers in this area can be kept operational.”
At present council lorries empty the tank every weekday morning. Documents sent to Mr Wyse, and seen by the Leinster Leader reveal that usually there are one to three loads per day and “usually up to five tankers on a Friday to allow for the weekend”.
The removed material is brought to Osbertstown Waste Water Treatment Plant.
Irish Water refused to disclose the cost per lorry load, saying it was commercially sensitive.
Mr Wyse noted that: “these are specialised tankers making a 15 km trip to Osberstown.
“I’ve been given estimates averaging €700 a trip and with at least 10 trips a week being made, the total cost per year would be at least €364,000.”
The land is owned by a local man called Joseph McGrath and his daughter, Catherine Ward, said that the dispute had been ongoing since 2013 and relates to a payment of €6,000 which is outstanding.

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At the April 17 meeting of the Kildare/Newbridge Municipal District, in response to a query about the matter from Mr Wyse’s Fine Gael colleague Mark Stafford the council said that that “Tankering will be necessary at this location until the Allenwood Modification Project is complete.”
That project is actually the Allenwood Vacuum System Modification & WWTP Upgrade which was revealed, in February 2017, to be at the point of design and preparation for planning.
Mr Wyse noted the lack of progress on the project since then.

In response issued on Tuesday morning to a media query about the upgrade and about the land dispute, Kildare County Council said it was a matter for Irish Water.