Family of ten's 'living nightmare' next door to sewerage plant
Bad smell, rats and midges a daily complaint
Credit: Photo: James Connolly.
Wednesday July 28 2010
Hot, sunny days are what most people are wishing for but for John Sweeney, his partner, Kerinza and their ten children, it's the last thing they want and it's all because they live next door to a sewer age treatment plant.
A tenant of the County Council, John says he recently received a handbook from the local authority outlining various duties and obligations.
" On one page it says we're entitled to live in peace and happiness but with the smell coming from that plant it's impossible to be happy," John told The Sligo Champion.
He and his family have been living in a four bedroom house in Collooney since last October but with the fine weather over the past few months he says it has become a nightmare.
" My partner is constantly sick. There's only a chain link fence and a row of palm trees that separate us from the plant," says John whose children range in age from 15 to one.
His children are also complaining on a daily basis of the smell.
" We cannot sit down in comfort and eat our breakfast it's so bad," he says.
The only relief they get is when the wind is blowing in the opposite direction. Windows in the four bedroom house have to be shut all of the time.
When they are open, flies and midges, attracted to the plant, soon make their presence felt.
" The children come out in red blotches due to the midges," says John, who adds that the area also has plenty of rats.
" I've complained to the Council on numerous occasions. I was told the river beside us is the cause of the rats and that the midges were part of country living. But human sewage isn't part of country living," says John.
A tanker lorry arrives at the treatment plant three or four times a week to empty its contents.
" The smell is just constant," said John, who has pleaded to be rehoused.
He had been living at Racecourse View in Cranmore previously but he says he and his family had to move out after a fire.
Approximately four weeks ago his dog went missing, later discovered dead amongst the sewage in the plant next door.
" If a dog can get in so easily then a child could. That's another constant worry I have," says John.
- PAUL DEERING
