Angry protest at goldmine as roads deteriorate
Thursday, 11 September 2008
A section of the road at the Cavanacaw goldmining site entrance, where lorries have to mount the grass verges to pass oncoming vehicles, resulting in mud-strewn road ways. PM3711
by Julie Moore.
Angry residents from the Cavanacaw area, outside Omagh, turned out in force on Friday to attend a heated meeting at the Galantas goldmine over the impact the firm's work has had on local roads and their residential environment.
Since January of this year, work at the Cavanacaw goldmine has caused major disruption to homeowners on the Falskey Road, Aghee Road, Corlea Road, Botera Road Upper, and surrounding areas.
Over 20 residents attended the meeting on Friday, in a bid to bring their argument to the fore. They listed the frequency of lorry runs - and the speed and times of these runs - as some of their main issues with the PT McWilliam's lorries, contracted by Galantas to remove stone dug out in the goldmining process.
Entry to the meeting had initially been restricted, due to the large number of residents who had turned up at the site, causing greater anger among those who wanted to vent their frustrations.
Residents left standing at the gate said: "The frequency of the traffic is a big problem, it's like a rash at the minute. All of these roads are very narrow, you can't get by. I don't understand why they can't come to an agreement to stage intervals between each run. It is bumper-to-bumper lorries some days."
Large Attendance
Addressing the crowd that had gathered at the gold mine, general manager for Omagh Minerals Ltd, Nick Hardie, apologised for the wait, explaining that he had not anticipated such a large attendance.
“We can't cope with this number of people here, as you can see from the number of cars. The information that I had been given was that there was going to be a meeting with Tom Buchanan and myself, and a number of representatives and P T McWilliams."
Mr Hardie began by outlining the work that is carried out at the site, where currently 35 staff are employed - 30 of whom have been recruited locally.
“With the operation up here, we are stuck with road systems that were built for horses and carts, but we have to dig the stone out, and in the process, when we heat it up, it expands by 40 per cent, so you have almost double the rock that you started off with, and it has to be removed. Our planning permission for seven years says that we have to restore the area and the land surface once we have finished, and that is what we are doing.
“This is part of the process that goes on, and to my knowledge, you all have to bear the brunt of the lorries up and down the roads.
Responsibility
“But we have an arrangement with PT McWilliams to excavate the stone that we use. There are representatives here from P T McWilliams, who organise the whole operation of excavating the stones. I'm not trying to deflect responsibility on to them in any way, this is our site. You are very welcome to phone me, my number is on the gate at the entrance. But by the same token, I would appreciate you contacting P T McWilliams in relation to anything on their end of things to speed things up."
Member of Omagh District Council, Mr Tom Buchanan MLA, reiterated Mr Hardie's words, saying: "As you rightly said, Nick, these roads were built for horses and carts, and not this type of machinery.
“But there are a huge amount of lorries on the roads. When I was coming up here today on the Corlea Road, my own car was scored because of the damage to the road. We understand the stone has to be excavated, and there has been increased employment brought to the area, but people live here, and they can't get in or out of their own houses, and there is nowhere to get past. Some of these roads are not able to take the weight of the lorries.
“I think if there had been any good procedure in place, people would have sat down and looked at the issue, and brought these roads up to standard of use before you started using them, and that hasn't happened."
A representative for PT McWilliams explained that, to his knowledge, discussions had taken place before work began at the site.
Route
He said: "The route that we are currently taking is all agreed with Road Service. I agree that some days there have been changes, like at the minute there is a man down the road who is building his house, and our lorries can't get by that, so we have had to change the route for that.
“The condition of the roads is really a problem for the Road Service. We weren't involved in the consultation process ourselves. We can't talk about repairs or damage, but what we have damaged, we have repaired ourselves."
During a number of heated exchanges between residents and representatives from PT McWilliams, the question was raised regarding the times the lorries were using the roads.
One female resident said: "On the Aghee Road there were 15 lorries driving along the other morning from 6 o'clock, and I have four children, I don't need them being wakened from 6 o'clock in the morning. Can you tell me why there was lorries on the road from that time?"
In reply, one of the representatives explained that, to their knowledge, lorries were on the roads from 7am to 7pm.
Another angry resident added: "I have been requesting for lay-bys on the Aghee Road, there is nowhere to pull over. Those lorries would drive over the top of you before they would stop. And some of these days I'm not going to pull over until the police come. They have taken over these roads. We need to let the world see that what is going on here, that we are having to put up with third-world country roads. We need to put it in the papers and let the world see."
Calm
Urging the residents to calm down, Mr Buchanan said: "The roads infrastructure is the main problem and that's what we have got to focus on. And the other issues will follow on from that.
“I will be working with Roads Service to make sure that something's going to be done, to make sure that things are brought up to the standard that is required.
“It is a big problem. It's not easy for people to reverse at the best of times but on a narrow country road, it is very dangerous."
Protesters' anger came to a head once more when Mr Hardie added that the planning permission contract allowed them to work at the site for seven years.
Having admitted that the company was currently making no money on the Cavanacaw site, Mr Hardie said the work would continue despite this - and despite the residents protestations - because the company had recruited a number of staff from the local area.
“For the amount of people that are here today, I could find you the same amount that have jobs here. We are not making a huge amount of money, but there are jobs for people here and it is our intention that we will make a payment to our shareholders in the future. We are trying to run a business here."
During the debate, the question was raised as to why a representative from Roads Service was not present at the meeting, given that they are responsible for maintaining road standards.
Unaware
Responding after the meeting, a DRD spokesperson said: "Roads Service was unaware that any protest meeting was planned. A range of local public representatives have been in contact with Roads Service staff over the past two months on this subject and negotiations with the contractor, P T McWilliams, have resulted in modifications to his routes. The roads affected are public roads and every member of the public has the right to use them.
“The contractor is using one route to access the gold mine with unladen lorries and another to carry away loads. This ensures that his lorries do not meet and endanger the integrity of the verges.
“As regards the maintenance of the roads affected, their routine inspection and repair has been substantially increased from the norm.
“At one stage approximately 200 metres of the Corlea Road was in need of reconstruction. When informed of this, the contractor agreed to carry out 300 metres of reconstruction and other substantial repairs at his own cost."
Speaking on Tuesday, gold mine general manager, Nick Hardie, expressed hopes that his company will receive a fair hearing on the issues raised.
“We heard complaints from maybe 30-odd residents and we are addressing their concerns, but by the same token we have 30 local people who are happy to have jobs in the industry, and to be afforded the opportunity to learn new skills.
“That needs to be taken into consideration."
At the beginning of this week Mr Buchanan proposed a further meeting, due to take place yesterday (Wednesday) in the County Hall.
Meeting
Said Mr Buchanan: "We have arranged a meeting provisionally for Wednesday of this week with Roads Service and members of PT McWilliams. Hopefully that will still go ahead, and we are trying to get that resolved, if not then it will go on another week.
“It is my understanding that Roads Service were not informed of the meeting on Friday. As far as I was aware the meeting on Friday was to be Nick Hardie, PT McWilliams and representatives, including myself, and afterwards we would bring Roads Service on board. I wasn't aware that all these people were going to be there, but it was good that they were because they were able to express the problem that they had, and now PT McWilliams and Nick Hardie know exactly what the difficulties are.
“I am now hoping to get two or three spokespeople from the residents, to act as a voice for their concerns. I believe PT McWilliams himself was there on Friday morning, and didn't meet with us then. I had previously been told that he was going to be at a wedding that day and wouldn't be able to come to the meeting, so we didn't expect him to be there at all, and I wasn't speaking to him. But I am hoping that some representatives from PT McWilliams will be there at this meeting."
The DUP MLA said one of the issues that will be focused on is that of the planning permission which was granted in 1996, a major concern for some residents who believe this contract to be 'outdated' for the current use of the site.
Said Mr Buchanan: "We have been looking at the planning permission that was granted in 1996, and also the nature of the removing of the stone. I'm am not so sure that the proper consultations were carried out for the planning permission, certainly they should have looked at the conditions of the roads before they went ahead with it."
