News from down the country

national | environment | news report Saturday October 18, 2008 23:26 by Contaminated Crow

A power station in Mayo, pylons in Meath and Kildare, incinerator in Meath, gas terminal in Kerry and a race track in Co Tipperary

An Bord Pleanala has overturned the decision by Mayo County Council to grant planning permission to Mayo Power Ltd. for a 140 million Euro power plant at the former Asahi site in Killala, Co. Mayo. Permission for the plant, which was to use biomass as well as peat, had been appealed by Killala Community Council, An Taisce, the Asahi Development Committee and a local resident. Sean Hannick of Killala Community Council expressed disappointment at the decision, saying ‘we have nobody to blame but ourselves because it was the Killala community who objected to it. It will be very hard to attract anything to Mayo because we are getting a name as a ‘no’ county which says no to everything. It is very difficult to do anything because the system seems to be in favour of the objector rather than the developer’. (Mayo News 14/10/08, p.1,2).

Local residents of Milltown, Co. Kildare, and surrounding areas met last Thursday to discuss continuing their opposition to a proposal by Eirgrid and the ESB to erect pylons for a 110 KV power line in the area near the Hill of Allen. At the meeting, which was addressed by Con Colbert of the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association, local landowners accused Eirgrid of bullying them into accepting pylons and poles on their land. Other locals, who have successfully opposed telemasts in the area, fear Eirgrid will erect mobile phone antennae on the pylons. Local resident Noeleen Leahy said ‘These power lines are within 400 metres of our homes and represent a detrimental health risk to our families. The electromagnetic field generated by these power lines is linked to childhood leukaemia and we want Eirgrid to put these power lines underground where they will not be a threat to anyone.’ (Source: Kildare Nationalist 19/10/08, p.1; Leinster Leader 16.10/08, p.1,2)

At a meeting in Trim, Co. Meath last week North East Pylon Pressure (NEPP) published a report from German company Askon Consulting Group comparing the merits of underground and overhead power lines as part of its campaign against the proposed Eirgrid Interconnector, which includes 140 kilometres of high power lines across Co. Meath. Dr. Colin Andrew of NEPP said ‘The Askon report provides us with the conclusive results we need…The time for research and talk from politicians is over. Now the people of the north-east demand action.’ (Source Meath Chronicle 18/10/08, p. 11)

The An Bord Pleanala (ABP) oral hearing into the proposed College Proteins (CP) MBM incinerator at Nobber, Co. Meath, was adjourned for three weeks last Friday after it was revealed that five acres of the site for which CP had applied for planning permission were owned by a local farmer, who had not been approached by CP to sell his land or giver permission for its development. Counsel for North East Against Incineration said ABP was not entitled to accept a revised EIS for a substantially different site, and denounced CP’s EIS as ‘riddled with factual inaccuracies’ while the groundwater findings it submitted were ‘manifestly wrong’. (Source Meath Chronicle 18/10/08, p.14)

A review of An Bord Pleanala’s (ABP) granting permission to Shannon LNG (a subsidiary of American corporation Hess LNG) for a 500 million Euro LNG terminal near Kilcolgan, Co. Kerry, began in the High Court this week following complaints by Friends of the Irish Environment and local resident Raymond O’Mahony, a member of Kilcolgan Residents Association, the group which opposed the plan on safety grounds at the ABP oral hearing in January. (Source The Kerryman (sic), 15/10/08, p. 2)

Residents of Rosegreen, Co. Tipperary, who have won planning battles in recent years against a proposed incinerator and a bio-energy plant, have now objected to a proposed horse racing track, stables and caravan site proposed for the vicinity of the Tipperary Motor Speedway track near the village. (Source: Clonmel Nationalist 18/10/08, p.1)