Press Release - June 25th 2013 In front of a full public gallery Laois County Council voted by 9 votes to 7, to pass a motion for a moratorium on planning permission for any wind farm applications/developments until the new national planning guidelines are in place. Councillor Padraig Fleming who proposed the motion had to make several attempts, but eventually forced a very reluctant Chairman to put it to a vote. The County Manager repeatedly interjected to advise councillors that the motion would have no legal standing. People over Wind are heartened by this vote which shows great solidarity with all the community groups fighting proposed wind farms. However it was alarming the number of councillors, especially FG who tried to stop the vote proceeding and failing this, absented themselves before the vote. Extensive lobbying work carried out by the wind companies and the huge number of option contracts signed by farmers before any public disclosure appears to have had a strong impact on many of our representatives. This debate has raged in Laois and the Midlands for many months. There is an onus on our public representatives to educate themselves about wind energy and ask hard questions. The economist, Colm McCarthy asked some hard questions in his article in last weeks Farmers Journal. Our Councillors should read this and start asking hard questions of wind developers. A case in point: the recent open days held by Coillte on the proposed Cullenagh wind farm were described by Councillor Mary Sweeney, as being very informative, despite Coillte blatantly failing to provide any information on : Where construction access to the wind-farm would be. How they will get the turbine blades into Cullenagh mountain. The location of underground power lines out of the site and into Portlaoise. Any detail on the height or size of the proposed central substation beside Turbine 3. How much destruction would be required for new roads and hard stand areas. How many trees would be removed. Where would the thousands of tons of excavated material go. The impact to walkers, runner, cyclists and horse-riders either during construction or afterwards. In fact 90% of the material on display was generic and related to Coillte, wind farms in general or to Laois County in general. The noise levels and sound study has not been conducted independently and no local residents were involved in these sound surveys. Our Local representatives need to ask the lobbyists, the private wind companies, Coillte and Bord na Mona much harder questions than appear to have been asked to date. People Over Wind - June 25 2013
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 09:20:46 +0000
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