Call for removal of gate spikes after boy impaled
The child required stitching and has recovered from the injury, which was categorised as minor by a county councillor.
Independent councillor Diarmaid Ó Cadhla has demanded that the gate, near houses at the Russell Heights estate in Cobh, Co Cork, should be altered to prevent any repeat incident.
“Children will climb, as we all know, so I want the spikes taken off it,” he told Cobh/ Glanmire Municipal District Council.
Municipal district officer Paraig Lynch said that the gate was installed some years ago by the former Cobh Town Council and he would have to refer the matter to the County Hall housing directorate which was now in charge of such facilities.
Mr Ó Cadhla said it was nonsensical that the municipal council could not make an immediate decision on the matter.
He also raised further issues involving illegal dumping of refuse close to the gate and four family homes.
Rubbish, he said, was accumulating to such an extent that it was blocking a rear passageway shared between the houses.
Mr Ó Cadhla maintained the illegal dumping posed “a public danger, in particular to young children in one of those houses”.
He requested a ‘door-type lock’ should be used on the gate after the spikes were removed, to allow controlled access and help prevent recurrence of such a build-up of illegal dumping.
Mr Lynch, meanwhile, said the request would be considered.
He noted that in recent years, volunteer members of Cobh Tidy Towns committee had carried out a number of clean-ups in the Russell Heights area.
