October 15, 2013
Ireland

Labour to push for plan change

Leinster Leader | 15 October 2013 | www.leinsterleader.ie

A Kildare anti-wind farm group has called on all councillors to support Labour’s motion to include wind energy regulations in the county development plan.

South Kildare Against Spin is urging all councillors to support Cllrs Browne, Byrne, Purcell, McGinley and Wall in their bid to vary the plan to include a minimum set-back from residences of 10 times the height of the turbine, where it exceeds 100 ms.

The motion, which is to be put forward at the council meeting on October 27, also says any proposal must consider any potential impact on the health and welfare.

Similar motions have been passed by Westmeath and Offaly County Councils.

Meanwhile, Independent Cllr. Pádraig McEvoy has called on the council to update its energy and landscape policies.

“The super-sized developments being promoted in communities across north-west and west Kildare represent structures of unprecedented height and scale in Ireland. When published in 2011, the County Development Plan was not prepared for scale of these proposals. The impact on landscapes could be enormous and it is important that local communities can have their input to shapes policies that could facilitate the export of our wind resource,” he said.

South Kildare Against Spin stressed; “Kildare County Council has a duty of care to the people of the County. The Council would be failing in this duty of care if it were to allow giant, industrial scale wind farm developments to take place without proper regulation,

“The Current Development Plan for County Kildare is wide open to exploitation by Wind Energy Developers, as it does not stipulate any minimum set backs from homes or designate specific areas suitable for wind farms. In addition, the development plan ignores the enormous impact industrial wind farms would have on the thoroughbred industry, a significant employer in Kildare. These omissions leave Kildare vulnerable to uncontrolled wind farm development, without any consideration of the potential impact on health, housing or the bloodstock industry.”

It also accused the companies of failing to engage with communities. The companies have refuted wind farms would have any affect on health or property prices. They stress they’ve held numerous information days and are willing to engage with communities. They point out there is no evidence of any impact of turbines on stud farms.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/10/15/labour-to-push-for-plan-change/