February 16, 2017
Ireland

Public information meeting today on multi-million euro giant wind farm plans

Donegal Now | Thursday 16th of February 2017 | www.donegalnow.com

Plans to build a major wind farm in the east of Donegal could be back on the cards – despite huge opposition to the original proposals.

In March 2016, An Bord Pleanala refused planning permission for a wind farm consisting of 49 turbines, with a maximum hub height of 156 metres.

But now Cork based firm, Planree Limited, is holding a public information meeting in the Villa Rose Hotel, Ballybofey, this Thursday, “on the current draft of the proposed Carrickaduff Wind Farm.

The “information session” – which runs from 3-8.30pm – is open to “all interested parties”.

Significantly, project representatives will be on hand to answer questions in relation to the proposed project and “to receive further input into the design going forward.”

All the indications are that planning permission will be sought for a scaled down version, but there remains fierce opposition locally.

In a statement, the Finn Valley Wind Action Group, said: “Having been refused by An Bord Pleanala only last March, it is a gross distortion of process that this company is again afforded the privilege of applying here again under the fast track Strategic Development Act.”

A spokeswoman pledged that the latest application will “be vigorously opposed also”.

She added that community is “up in arms” with what she claimed were the developers’ recent tactics of trying to undermine them by “window dressing of their assessments and community involvement.”

She concluded: “This development has no place in the area, there is and will not be any community involvement. The message is clear, they are not wanted. “

Planree Limited lodged the original plans in 2014 for the development on a site that stretches for 17km over 31 townlands near the Barnesmore Gap in Donegal, close to the border with Tyrone.

The development would have been bigger than the 88.5 Megawatts (MW) Meentycat wind farm in Donegal, which is the biggest in the Republic.

More than 200 objections were lodged with the appeals board. Many of them focused on concerns about the visual impact of the turbines with a blade tip height of up to 156.5metres – considerably higher than Dublin’s 121m Spire on O’Connell Street.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/02/16/public-information-meeting-today-on-multi-million-euro-giant-wind-farm-plans/