Eircom ordered to remove mini ‘hazardous’ structures

More than 180 structures, several of which have been described as "hazardous" by Dublin City Council, have been erected by Eircom on the city's streets without planning permission.

The small steel boxes, known as “micro pillars”, were installed by the company on footpaths around the city over the past four months without the permission or knowledge of the council.

Eircom has been given until Friday next to remove the hazardous structures, and must seek retrospective planning permission for the remaining pillars if it wishes to retain them.

The council has identified 181 pillars, 20 of which it says are in hazardous locations. The oblong boxes are less than 2ft tall and represent a tripping danger to pedestrians, particularly at night. Eircom has been ordered to block off the dangerous pillars until they have been removed.

“Dublin City Council notified Eircom immediately of the unauthorised status of the micro pillars and that Eircom must make safe all hazardous micro pillars, until such time as they are removed,” a spokesman for the council said.

The pillars were installed as part of the company’s provision of broadband services, a spokeswoman for the company said.

“The micro pillars were constructed by Eircom’s contractors over the last few months and they are located at various sites across Dublin. These pillars are used to connect our fibre cabinets with the ESB network.”

Fibre cables run from an Eircom exchange to the onstreet fibre cabinet that contains the broadband equipment. From there, broadband fibre services can be carried to business and residential premises using the existing copper- wire network. The company has agreed to uproot the micro pillars.

“Eircom is working closely with our contractors and Dublin City Council to remove the micro pillars and to replace them with underground joint boxes,” she said.

A member of the public contacted the council and Eircom in September after tripping and falling over one of the pillars while crossing the road in the Sandymount area.