Source of ‘hum’ unlikely to be named, say council

A FORTHCOMING report of the local council’s investigation into the Omagh hum is unlikely to name any businesses or organisations responsible for causing the sleep-depriving sound, a top official has warned.

A probe into the mysterious nocturnal noise remains ongoing, but, unless formal legal proceedings take place, local people may never know who was behind the source of their distress.

On Tuesday evening, during a meeting of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s Regeneration & Community Committee, the local authority’s Director of Community and Wellbeing, John Boyle, issued the council’s most detailed update on the phenomenon thus far.

“There is no doubt about it, the noise has reduced,” he began, prompted by the latest set of questions in a sustained campaign of enquiry by Omagh town councillor, Barry McElduff.

The Sinn Féin representative welcomed reports from local residents who say the sound has subsided of late, before asking whether the noise has gone away completely, if the investigation is still live, what the likelihood of legal action is, how much the investigation has cost, and if ‘we are allowed to know at this juncture what was or is the source of the noise?’

Mr Boyle responded, “Environmental health officers have been in contact with complainants and continue to be. Is the investigation still ongoing?

“Yes, because we could not be 100 per-cent confident that it has totally gone away. It is very much a live investigation.

“We do hope that within a number of weeks that we will be able to bring a report on the outcome of that investigation to committee.”

EXPENSE

Regarding the financial expense incurred by the council’s investigations, he said, “I wouldn’t have those (numbers) available. I can say, however, that most of it is in relation to officer time. Officers have spent significant time outside of hours trying to pinpoint the source of the noise.”

Appearing to prepare the public for what the report might contain, Mr Boyle said, “It may be the case that the noise is not (coming from) just one particular point. It may be the case that various different issues… are combining to create a (single) noise. (Therefore), it may be that small fine tuning of various instruments… may actually be responsible for the reduction in the noise.”

Turning his attention to the prospect of future litigation, Mr Boyle said, “Are legal proceedings likely in the future? I couldn’t say yes or no, at this stage, because the investigation is not concluded. What I will say is that unless there are formal legal proceedings we will not be naming where the source of that noise came from. We will work with businesses and organisations to ensure, as we have done since this process begun, that it is reduced and that it goes away completely.”

He concluded, “What I can say is that significant progress has been made and that we will bring a report to committee – that will probably be June time.”