Make your voices heard on Carlow and Kilkenny wind farm proposals 

The Save Mount Leinster group is holding a virtual town hall meeting later today (Tuesday, 9th February).

The zoom session starts at half-past seven and organisers say they will be outlining how people can file a submission on the proposed Coilte windfarm in the Blackstairs. (Details on the project here).

Over 2,000 signatures have been collected as part of the campaign to stop the development of seven turbines. (Petition details here).

Cornelia McCarthy says there about two weeks for anyone with an interest to make a submission on the planning application telling KCLR News “Seven colossal wind turbines on the slopes of Mount Leinster just 18 metres from a special area of conservation and many people are still just hearing about this enormous proposal and the planning application is actually in with Carlow County Council at the moment, now submissions have to be into Carlow County Council on or before the 25th of February, we’re encouraging people to make their voices heard”.

She adds “The worry here of course that once a precedent is set that more will follow so if you’re concerned about keeping the mountain free of industrialisation this is something you’re going to have to do, once one windfarm gets in the precedent is set and more will follow”.

Ms McCarthy sums up how to get involved in this evening’s digital gathering, saying “Save Mount Leinster are having a community virtual town hall meeting today at 7:30 in the evening to discuss together how to make a submission, now we had a highly successful similar event last week and due to demand we’re running another one, to register for the event people have to send us an email and then we send them a zoom link to the event, places are limited”.

Castlebanny Wind Farm

Meanwhile, a Kilkenny councillor is encouraging people to make a submission on plans for a massive wind farm in the south of the county.

Coilte is also applying for planning permission to put up more than 20 turbines in Castelbanny. (Details on the project here).

The application has been submitted to An Bord Pleanala and not Kilkenny County Council but the local authority will be making its own submission when it’s examined the proposal.

Cllr Eamonn Aylward says with any plans this big the pros and cons should be looked at by the public and the authorities, telling KCLR “As far as I know, I’m open to correction on it, it’s the largest proposal for the Eastern half of the country at the moment so it’s important, yeah, that people do engage in the process, that they get onto the website be it An Bord Pleanala or Castlebannywindfarm.ie and look at what’s being proposed and make their own mind up as to whether they want to make a submission, don’t want to make a submission, are happy with what’s being proposed, not happy, but at least if we can get the information out there people can look at it”.

The Castlebanny windfarm will cover 21 square kilometres and Coilte says it will provide enough clean electricity to power 70,000 homes.

Cllr Aylward says it’s a major development so local should check out the details to see if they think it’s a good idea, noting “It’s covering a huge area, it’s basically touching the parishes of Mullinavat, Tullogher, Ballyhale which will have most of the development in it, Thomastown and Inistioge so it’s a huge area, parcel of land, it’s a massive development”.