ARSONISTS who burned a local council election candidate’s poster have cut off telephone lines to the elderly.
People Before Profit candidate Charlie Mc Dyer, standing in the Stranorlar Area, says she was shocked to find her posters on a telegraph pole burnt.
The attack happened on the Meenglass road leading to Carrickmagrath.
“I was dismayed to see the damage that had been done, how it had affected locals in the area who have now been left with no home telephone connection; and the impact it has had to the environment,” she said.
“The telegraph pole that the sign had been erected upon showed significant charring and the phone lines it carried were damaged.”
Talking to local residents in the area Mc Dyer was informed that the arson was initially carried out some time on Wednesday night.
According to Ms Mc Dyer there was a poster belonging to another candidate situated below hers. This was set alight on the Wednesday and didn’t initially affect her poster. Therefore the arsonist returned on Thursday night and ignited her poster.
“I had committed herself to placing my posters high up on poles so a ladder would have been required to carry out this act of vandalism,” she said.
She added: “The fact that this act was carried out over two nights is a clear indication that someone deliberately targeted my poster. This does not bother me in the slightest.
“What angers me is the fact that local residents; some of whom are elderly people, are now left without a home phone connection which is a terrible blow to those who need the comfort of knowing help is available when they may require it, not to mention the damage done to the environment from the molten plastic burning the hedge underneath.
“This is an act of cowardly malice and utter gross stupidity considering how the hedgerow could have caught fire and caused serious damage to the area”.
Ms Mc Dyer has pledged her full support to the residents of the area in assisting them to be re-connected to the phone network.
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