Missing pencil bollards appearing outside homes of Enniscorthy residents – ‘ I know they didn’t purchase these themselves’

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Pencil bollards installed to enable children to travel safely to and from school every day are allegedly being stolen by residents in neighbouring estates in Enniscorthy.

According to local councillor John O’Rourke the bollards are being repurposed by home owners to ensure errant motorists don’t park on footpaths outside their houses.

“The amount of them going missing is unbelievable,” he said at the October meeting of the Enniscorthy Municipal District.

“The pencil ones are being uprooted and placed on public footpaths outside people’s property, they are lodging the bollards outside their gates to stop people parking by their houses. I know these people didn’t purchase the bollards themselves.

"The ones at Duffry Gate, there was about 30 of them initially, there’s less than half that remaining, and there’s three of them outside one house in the area. Maybe we should do a bollard amnesty and get people to drop them back to us.”

Area engineer Neil Dempsey admitted that, once bollards are installed, he cannot monitor them to prevent members of the public from potentially stealing them.

“I don’t know what people are using them for,” he said. “It’s becoming an issue in relation to broken bollards too, I’ve seen a driver reverse back onto one, bend it in half, and drive off. If we put metal ones in they eventually break and become a trip hazard.”