Windfarm decision heartening for campaigners - Doherty

Fine Gael TD for Meath East, and Minister of State at the Department of An Taoiseach, Regina Doherty, has said that An Bord Pleanála’s (ABP) decision to refuse planning permission for Maighne Wind Farm in County Kildare is encouraging for Meath campaigners.

The Meath-based minister said: “An Bord Pleanála this week refused planning for 47 wind turbines in North Kildare. This is certainly a welcome development, particularly given that the reasons for the refusal are on the basis that the development would be premature in light of the absence of a national wind energy strategy with a spatial dimension.

“The reasons presented by ABP in its refusal are uncanny to those which we have been screaming from the rooftops in the form of public meetings and oral hearings,' Ms Doherty stated.

“Meath campaigners have been fighting tooth and nail to protect our communities and landscape from the invasion of industrial sized wind turbines. Oversized wind farms have already been rejected by local residents and APB in the past; and regardless of this Element Power, in one if its many guises and alias, has come back to Meath for another attempt at a land grab.

“We currently await a decision from ABP as regards an application lodged for the development of Castlemoor Wind Farm. I joined the many hundreds in formally making my objection known to ABP as to the second attempt of an imposition of industrial sized wind turbines on our rural communities.

“ABP’s decision to refuse planning permission for Maighne Wind Farm in Kildare may well be an indication that, for the second time, ABP will hear our concerns and refuse planning for Castlemoor - for the same reasons we have seen previously in Meath and most recently in Kildare.”