Council discuss removal of army tower at the Hill of the O’Neill

NI Water is currently exploring options that could see a former British army observation mast on Dungannon’s Hill of the O’Neill relocated, Mid Ulster District Council’s development committee has been told.

At a recent meeting of the committee, members were advised a new short to medium-term operational plan has been developed for the Hill of the O’Neill and Ranfurly House site.

The plan is part of the Mid South West growth deal and the development of the facility could see the creation of a destination play park, a softening of the hill and a closed events space as well as an upgraded exhibition.

However, speaking at the committee meeting, Cllr Barry Monteith said the current location of the mast will stop the site from ever reaching its “full potential” and called for discussions about its removal or relocation to be reconvened with the relevant agencies.

“We are talking about the Hill of the O’Neill and its development over the next couple of years but one thing that we have talked about before and we need to dig it up, which may be exactly the right term here, now that the election is over, is the mast on the site,” he said.

“We can’t develop a strategic plan for developing that site to its full potential while that is still present so I would propose we reignite the meetings that were ongoing a few months back.

“There was some progress made, we might not have got all the answers we wanted but at least we were making conversation with the folk about getting the mast removed.

“So I would propose we restart the conversations with the Department for Infrastructure and NI Water.

Council’s assistant director of development, Claire Linney apologised for not adding this information to her report.

She told the meeting council officers have been discussing the issue with NI Water, who are now looking at a “range of options” for the mast.

“There is the potential to reduce the size of the mast or camouflage it and there are a range of things being looked at,” she said.

“NI Water has brought on specialist consultants to look at it, as there are a lot of views to take on board from a range of users and it will take a few months to do but we will keep members updated with that,” the council official added.