Fuel tank lying derelict for 17 years

Residents of Castlemartyr have said a disused petrol storage tank on the village’s main street constitutes a serious risk to residents and businesses.

The site of the former Abernethy’s Garage, which operated in the town between the 1940s and 2009, has fallen into disrepair, and vital decommissioning work on the petrol storage has allegedly not been done.

However solicitors for the owner confirmed last Friday that works are scheduled to start later this month.

“Our clients are not walking away from their responsibilities in relation to their property. They have engaged the services of the appropriate experts to advise and carry out the necessary works.”

Resident Eileen McCarthy has received a number of documents relating to the pumps and Cork County Council’s attempts to secure their decommissioning via a Freedom of Information request. She alleged that the tanks constituted a serious risk to residents and businesses in the village.

The issue has been raised by residents and investigated by the council for the last 17 years.

Abernethy’s Garage closed its doors in 2009. It was located on the main street in Castlemartyr. The petrol pumps were positioned on the footpath by the street. The pumps were removed in October 2022, but the tank was not decommissioned at that date. In 2011, Cork County Council received a complaint from local residents and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) that the pumps constituted a fire risk.

As a result, a county council fire officer carried out an inspection of the site. In their report dated 18 January 2011 they said that they would contact the property owner - Colman Abernethy - to confirm his plans to decommission the pumps.

As part of that report, they also submitted a map of the site, which highlighted that the storage tanks underneath the street contained 9,500 gallons, or 43,300 litres of petrol at time of inspection. There is no record of the petrol having been removed.

Brennan Foy & Co., solicitors acting on behalf of Abernethy, wrote to the council and said they would be “advising Mr Abernethy to proceed and ask three companies to submit proposals” to decommission the storage tanks.

In June 2011, a follow-up inspection by the fire officer found that “no works have been carried out to date, premises the same as it was at the initial inspection”.

They also said that they had been informed by Abernethy’s solicitors that they were “meeting with a firm who decommission tanks next week and will then proceed to carry out the works”.

However, this work was allegedly not carried out.

On 6 June 2018, a fire broke out at the site. An incident report from the time stated the fire consisted of “tyres inside the garage” and that the presence of fuel tanks on the site was a concern.

However, no injuries or damage to the tanks was reported.

The issue was raised with the council again in 2019, when Castlemartyr resident Maurice Cunningham sent correspondence to a number of councillors.

“For several years the fuel station has remained closed, slowly over time degrading into a rather unpleasant eyesore on the main street to residents, tourists and visitors,” he said.

He also highlighted that the pumps were completely accessible to children, who are “in their general nature inquisitive and can be known to go where they shouldn’t given the chance”.

On 17 September, on foot of Cunningham’s email, Cork County Council’s then-chief fire officer Séamus Coughlan telephoned and wrote to Colman Abernethy to inform him that as the site’s owner he would have to “arrange to have the petroleum installation fully decommissioned”.

The site is owned by T.W. Abernethy & Sons Ltd, of which Colman Abernethy is secretary and co-director.

Under section 10 of the Retail and Private Petroleum Stores Regulations SI 311, 1979, the owner of underground petrol storage tanks must give 21 days’ notice to the licensing authority of their intention to stop using the tank.

They must also “take all practicable steps … to render the tank immune from the risk of fire or explosion”.

There is no record of an answer to Coughlan’s letter. He wrote to Abernethy on three other occasions - on 6 January 2021, 8 April 2021, and 22 February 2022. There is similarly no record of any answer having been received.

Non-decommissioned tanks can pose a serious risk of explosion even if the petrol is removed.

In a response to a query by Eileen McCarthy, the HSA said that “removing the liquid petrol is not sufficient as petrol vapours remain in the tanks for many years and explosions have occurred in tanks that had not been used for over 30 years”.

Coughlan’s successor, Michael Kelleher, followed up on the matter, and wrote to Abernethy on 17 April 2024, and 1 May 2024. On 8 May, he received a reply to the latter correspondence from Mr Abernethy’s solicitors - McCourt, Mullane & Company llp. - that works would be carried out by Bernard Fitzpatrick and Associates.

However, on 16 December 2025, Fitzpatrick contacted Cork County Council to state that the decommissioning would not take place until early 2026, due to issues with the license of one of their contractors.

This issue was set to be resolved in December 2025/January 2026, and Fitzpatrick said he would inform the council when he had “a firm date” for the works to be carried out.

There is no record that the council was informed of a date, and solicitors for T.W. Abernethy & Sons Ltd. confirmed that works have not yet been carried out, but were scheduled to start later this month.

“Our clients are not walking away from their responsibilities in relation to their property.

“To this end, they have engaged the services of the appropriate experts to advise and carry out the necessary works, and the works as advised to our clients are scheduled to commence later this month,” they said.