Moving an Eircom Pole

Sometimes when you get planning permission in Ireland for an extension to a house there is a requirement to move a utility pool (typically an ESB or Eircom Pole). Either to make way for the new extension or as a condition of the planning permission.

Now the cost of moving the pole falls to the house owner. So how much does it cost? This seems to be shrouded in mystery, and all queries get the response "it depends".

In our case the planning permission conditions required the movement of two poles, one ESB one Eircom. Double trouble. The Eircom pole had nothing to do with the extension, it is far away from the house out on the road. Nevertheless its movement was part of the planning permission, for valid road safety reasons. In other words moving it anyway was a good idea, and this was the planners opportunity to get it moved at our expense by making its movement a condition of the planning permission.

(BTW Cavan County council demand €8K up front for themselves, and also insisted on a completely unnecessary upgrade to our perfectly functioning septic tank. Overall it turns out we would need to stump up about €20K before we paid anything towards the extension itself).

Anyway, getting back to the Eircom pole. The total movement was by 2 metres, We ourselves are not served from this particular pole.

I emailed Eircom and asked for a ballpark figure. They ignored that and told me that first I would have to pay up-front €340.50 for a survey. The cost of the survey would be deducted from the overall cost if we decided to go ahead. Some googling around indicated that the cost would be expensive, with prices fluctuating wildly. On the assumption that only an aggrieved minority post their experiences on the Internet, I guessed it would come in at around €2K.

So I paid my €340.50, and waited. A couple of months later this arrived.

So now you know. The attached invoice indicated that the Labour cost came to an astonishing €3162.50. Note the bit where it says that the final cost may increase (to God Knows What) and that we may have to pay more.

I guess if I wait long enough a passing truck will eventually demolish the damn pole. There have been a few near misses already.