Objectors to giant wind farm win landmark planning battle
Wednesday September 20 2006
Wind farm objectors, including a number of large-scale barley tillage farmers, yesterday won a landmark planning battle, shooting down plans for 17 giant wind turbines, taller than the Spire of Dublin.
After a high-profile fight, An Bord Pleanala finally refused permission for Dutch developers WEOM to erect the 400ft-high turbines at Kilbraney, Co Wexford.
The decision puts down a national marker that planners will not automatically give the green light for wind farms where they can visually damage the landscape and impact on the lives of local people.
More than 20 other communities are currently fighting plans to have giant wind warms erected in their areas. They are also planning to field candidates in the general election.
The turbines would have dominated the skyline at Kilbraney, Coolboy, Kayle, Ballynamona, Ballyliamgow, Bryanstown, Tinnarath and Ballygarvan.
The board threw out the plan for three main reasons. These were of the size and scale of the turbines, their visual impact on the landscape and local homes and the so-called shadow flicker, casting shadows across homes.
Meanwhile, the Save Kilbraney Campaign welcomed the decision to uphold the rejection by senior planners in Wexford Co Council.
It argued that it was unreasonable to erect the turbines over an extensive area close to and surrounding so many houses in low-lying inland countryside.
- Treacy Hogan
