The owner cannot be allowed to continue this game of cat and mouse
By Andy Spearman
The rusting eyesore that is the Hebble Sand dredger has been moored in the Boyne for far too long. Someone in the Drogheda Port or the Department of Transport needs to get their finger out and get rid of the ugly wreck.
If someone was to abandon a private boat in the waterway or a clapped out car or truck in the roadway to the port they wouldn’t be long about removing it. The bloody thing sank at its mooring ten months ago spewing diesel into the Boyne and even then it wasn’t removed.
All we’ve had since it sank is talk and fruitless enquiries into who actually owns the rust bucket, although when the Port Company was asked to attend a Council meeting to update members they didn’t show up.
We’ve waited far too long for the owners, whoever they are, to take responsibility for their property and remove it. At this stage it must be obvious to everyone that the Hebble Sand has been abandoned.
How difficult can it be to tow it down to Tom Roe’s Point, lift it out of the water, cut it into pieces and send them away to be recycled? The bill for this should then be sent to the owners – whoever they are.
The Drogheda Port Company said at one stage that the Hebble Sand is a valuable piece of marine heritage. If that’s the case it should be sent to a museum or restored – not left to rot and certainly not across the river from Drogheda’s only tourist hotel.
Local TD Ged Nash has been following the Hebble Sand saga since the start and he says that it needs to be brought to an immediate end. He wants access to the vessel given to the Marine Survey Office so they can carry out the necessary surveys and have it towed away.
Last week Deputy Nash asked the Minister for Transport for an update on proposals to remove the Hebble Sand from the Boyne and he was told that the Marine Survey Office has received a survey application but the timing of any survey rests with, you guessed it, the owner, who has done nothing with the vessel for years!
“The Marine Survey Office has now informed me again that that they have received a survey application from the owner of the offending rust bucket that’s been abandoned on our river for far too long, but access has yet to be organised by the owners for the survey to be carried out” Deputy Nash said.
“This is an important step before anything else can happen” he said. But he added, “The owner cannot be allowed to continue this game of cat and mouse.
“The foot dragging needs to end. Drogheda wants rid of this blot on our river and landscape and the boat owner needs to get a move on. We’re sick of endless delays and excuses.”
