| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Wind farm reduction: County council at war with new Environment Minister after he told them to reverse decision
Credit: By James Ward | Irish Mirror | Jul 25, 2014 | www.irishmirror.ie ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
A County council is at war with the new Environment Minister after he told them to reverse a decision on reducing windfarms.
Representatives in Donegal have blasted the instructions from Alan Kelly as an “affront to democracy”.
The council passed a motion to limit the areas where windfarms can be built by a vote of 18-11 as part of their County Development Plan.
This came following a period of consultation which was overwhelmingly backed by locals, with 98.5% in favour of the plans.
Donegal Mayor John Campbell told the Irish Mirror: “In comparison to other public consultations that we’ve had, this has garnered the greatest amount of replies and they’ve been overwhelmingly in support of the removal of these areas from consideration for windfarming.”
Mr Campbell said the council was furious the Department of the Environment had stepped in to overrule them.
Donegal is the second largest supplier to the national energy grid, behind Cork. But Mr Kelly instructed them to remove the directives which he feels are not in keeping with the National Energy Strategy.
Joe Brennan of the Glenties Windfarm Information Group said the move undermined both the local authority and the public consultation process.
He added: “What is the point of consulting the public if you intend on blatantly ignoring them?”
Independent councillor Michael Mac Ghiolla Easbuig said: “It’s very simple. If we make a decision, there’s been a vote and the public support it, it should be respected by the Government.”
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Contributions |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=65510 ]
