THE generation of vast amounts of money for retail giant Amazon contrasted with the small amount of benefit to locals facilitating a data cable on a popular beach, was one of the observations made at a public meeting last week.
Local environmental group Castlefreke Our Woods Our Walks joined with Social Democrat Cllr Isobel Towse and Fianna Fáil junior minister Christopher O’Sullivan to host a public meeting which drew over 60 locals, to discuss the cable.
The online company is proposing to survey lands at Castlefreke, to assess it for the suitability for a subsea cable, which would make landfall at Long Strand, which is a special area of conservation (sac).
Cllr Towse gave details of a meeting she secured with Amazon recently.
She said concerns were raised at last week’s public meeting, when some members of the public noted that there may be shifting sands as a result of the survey.
But they also noted that the community and environment get very little out of the cable which contributes to the generation of vast amounts of revenue for the companies utilising it.
‘As politicians it’s our role to share any information we can get our hands on, listen to people’s concerns and encourage people to participate in public consultation, which has been my aim to date,’ said Cllr Towse.
‘I have engaged as much as I can on this issue and after careful consideration and speaking to different groups, my main concern is about the inclusion of a special area of conservation in the survey area. This is completely unnecessary and should not go ahead when there are plenty of other possible locations. I am of the view that ideally this project should not even go ahead within the Fair Seas ‘areas of interest’ either, but I understand the offshore environmental impact to be relatively minimal if major fishing grounds are avoided. And if the cable can be fed under the beach without digging a trench, the onshore impact seems minimal also,’ she added.
Cllr Towse said the cables are used for essential internet infrastructure, the provision of which is now highly privatised by companies such as Amazon.
‘As these cables approach the end of their lifecycles, they must be replaced in order to continue to support web services. The cable itself does legitimately need replacement, but should be located in a more appropriate location,’ she said.
