‘Cranagh is the forgotten place’

There are basic amenities and facilities one might expect in the western world in the 21st Century, such as running water, constant electricity, a mobile phone connection and broadband. However for some local people, this is unfortunately not the case.

Nestled high in the Sperrins, the small hamlet of Cranagh and its surrounding area is as picturesque as picturesque can be. But whilst the scenic charm is lovely – romantic even – there remains a downside to living so far from the urban sprawl. A number of concerned residents, representing some 600-700 people living throughout the Cranagh valley, gathered outside St Patrick’s Church in the village this week to outline the extreme paucity of those aforementioned amenities. Local man Paul Conway was blunt in his assessment of the situation. He painted a grim picture.

“You honestly couldn’t write this,” he said. “It’s seven miles between here and Plumbridge and ten miles in the other direction to the nearest town, so that’s a total of 18 miles where the people of Cranagh hamlet and the wider valley are forgotten about. Mobile phone reception, decent internet, television reception, road gritting in the winter; all the things that we should be able to get; in Cranagh, you can forget it.

“Everyone in Cranagh has a landline because, without that, we’d have no connection to the outside world at all, unless we get in the car and travel seven miles into Plumbridge. And should the electric go out, as it does about five times every winter, then the phones are also knocked out, leaving us stranded.

“Our television coverage was terrible for many years, despite the television mast being extremely close. It’s taken a small booster being installed here to actually allow us to watch TV.

“Internet coverage is atrocious; places like Draperstown and Park have decent coverage but people there say it’s getting worse as more people use it. There’s talk of Fibrus coming to Cranagh but I do believe that by the time we get it, there won’t be much of a difference to what we have now; we’re back to square one before we start.”

According to Mr Conway, another huge issue for Cranagh families is road gritting – or the lack thereof.

He continue, “The authorities have steadfastly refused to grit the area as they’ve claimed that the road doesn’t get enough traffic to warrant it. But this road is packed with all sorts of traffic day after day. There are numerous times when even the bin lorries refuse to come if the weather is bad, leaving bins overflowing. (It feels that) people don’t want to know about us.”

Another local, Mark Kelly believes that the lack of gritting is a “tragedy waiting to happen.”

“During the winter we don’t get gritted at all. It stops about a mile and a half from Cranagh. There’s only one road in and out of here and one of the main schools for locals is Draperstown, which is around 13 miles away. That’s 13 miles of untreated road that schoolchildren travel on; that’s putting lives at risk.” After being contacted regarding occasions of non-bin collection, a spokesperson for Derry City and Strabane District Council said, “In relation to queries relating to the non-collection of bins, the council’s refuse collection service always operates all year round with the health and safety of its staff and the public to the fore. There have only been a small number of occasions when it has been unsafe for vehicles to access some areas during snow or icy weather conditions. When this does occur, the council makes every effort to have the refuse collected and to remove any excess waste accumulated during these periods as soon as possible.” Mr Conway added, “People may say it’s like living in the ‘70s; I’d say it’s more like living in the ‘40s.”

Lack of broadband services having a detrimental effect

BUSINESS and education are being severely harmed by the lack of functional broadband in the Cranagh area, locals have warned.

Speaking out, local father-of-two Seamus McKenna says that his two daughters are finding it difficult to do their jobs due to the weak broadband signal.

“I have two daughters; one works in a bar and the other is a hairdresser,” Seamus explained.

“Between them, they’re using the internet most of the day.

“I live in Corramore at the other side of the valley and, on a good day, out broadband is one half to one megabyte.

“If it’s a winter’s day I’m getting one fifth of a megabyte.

“My daughter who works in the bar has to order drinks and the other daughter gets a lot of her appointments booked through Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.

“If the internet is down then they can’t do their jobs.

“At present I’m paying £45 a month for broadband but the signal I get for that is abysmal.

“I’ve complained but was told, ‘you’re at the end of the line so the signal is too weak.’

“It’s not good enough for what I pay, to be frank.”

Local children’s education is also sufferin due to a lack of broadband.

Another Cranagh resident noted that, during Covid online learning for some proved impossible.

She noted, “There was no such thing as online learning for children in Cranagh as we couldn’t get internet access.

“Either the children’s parents had to come to the school and literally pick up the books for their kids or there was a woman in Plumbridge who generously offered to print out online lessons for children and the parents had to travel the seven miles into Plumbridge to pick the lessons up.

“Although they muddled through, I personally believe that the children lost out by not having the ability to properly learn online and it certainly harmed their education.

“The sooner this is sorted out the better!”

‘I haven’t had running water for 22 years’

If there’s one amenity that so many of us take for granted, it’s the water in our taps at home. Not so, for Cranagh resident Michael Cartin.

Michael explained that despite living in his house with his wife and family for the past 22 years, he has never had running water in the dwelling. This is partly due to the high costs of being connected to the water grid.

He remarked, “I’m using water from a well – a well in this day and age!

“We use the well water for everything in our house; making a cup of tea, bathing, you name it.

“I’m not originally from the area, I married a woman from here and moved to Cranagh, and it’s been like this ever since we got married. When we moved in, I approached NI Water about getting us hooked up to the mains and I was told it would cost £38,000 to do so. I dread to think what it would cost nowadays.”

The Cranagh man also pointed out that, on warm summer days like many experienced last week, the heat tends to have a detrimental effect on the well. This, Michael says, ‘plays havoc’ with family life.

Local independent councillor Paul Gallagher, who is working on residents’ behalf believes there must be a multi-agency approach to solving Cranagh’s lack of amenities.

He fumed, “If you live in a town there are basic amenities expected, amenities people in Cranagh don’t get. These people pay rates, half of which goes to council and half going to Stormont. They are paying for things they don’t get.

“Basic human rights such as light, electricity and water and others aren’t being met in Cranagh. Society is moving on, but Cranagh is clearly being left behind.

“We need to get all elected representatives together in Cranagh to sort the problem out.”

When contacted in relation to the Cartin family’s situation, an NI Water spokesperson said, “NI Water assesses every application to determine the feasibility and cost for the customer… Discounts and schemes are unavailable for water connection applications. However, the customer can contact the NI Water Developer Services team on 03458770003 to discuss their options.”

DfI response on gritting

“The Department delivers a winter service programme to mitigate, as far as is reasonably possible, the effects of adverse winter weather. In accordance with the existing policy the Department salts the main through routes linking towns and villages which carry more than 1,500 vehicles per day and, in exceptional circumstances, roads carrying between 1,000 and 1,500 vehicles per day are salted. The application of this policy means that 28 per-cent of the total road network, which carries around 80 per-cent of traffic, is salted.

“Following requests for inclusion of the B47 between Cranagh and Draperstown onto the gritted network an assessment of the route based on the Department’s current Winter Service policy was previously undertaken and it does not meet the current policy criteria for inclusion. However, the B47 between Cranagh and Draperstown is given a high priority for secondary treatment after gritting of the primary routes have been assured and when resources are available.

“The B47 carries approximately 600 vehicles per day, including buses. The number of vehicles is an important factor when assessing roads for potential inclusion onto the salting schedule. Rock salt, which is spread on the road, requires a considerable amount of traffic to break down the salt particles and spread the resulting solution across the road surface before it becomes an effective ‘de-icer’. Where there are low volumes of traffic spreading salt on its own provides little benefit, or at least takes a considerable length of time to become effective. As a result, the application of salt on low trafficked roads can in fact be counterproductive when it comes to road safety since it may inadvertently create a false sense of security for road users who may drive at higher speeds than are appropriate for the prevailing conditions.”