Meath councillors pressurise EirGrid to reveal pylons route

Members of Meath County Council last week rejected EirGrid"s assertions that the route of the 400kV power line from Batterstown to Kingscourt had not yet been decided, when the company made a presentation to a meeting of councillors last week. Several councillors said that they did not believe the company when it said the route hadn"t been decided and urged EirGrid to reveal which route would be the subject of a planning application, now expected to be made in December. Andrew Cooke of EirGrid insisted that a decision had not been made on the preferred route and would not be made until all information submitted to date has been reviewed and given due consideration. Cllr John Farrelly pointed out that EirGrid had said it would be making a planning application in December and he didn"t believe it had not yet decided on the route. He believed EirGrid didn"t intend to let people know what route had been chosen until it made the application. Cllr Eugene Cassidy also believed the company did know the route and urged it to tell councillors, instead of having people guessing. 'You are not being open and transparent,' he claimed. Cllr William Carey said he was very cynical and was convinced the company knew exactly where the line would go. 'Come out now and tell us, so that people along the various routes won"t have so much worry and stress,' he said. Cllr Anne Dillon Gallagher believed that the route was 'a done deal' and the consultation process was just an exercise in PR. 'It is a waste of our time and of your time. Tell us the truth for a change,' she said. Fears were also expressed that the proposed interconnector between Wales and the east coast was a way of importing nuclear generated electricity into the country. Cllr Jenny D"Arcy said she believed it was away of bringing in nuclear power and she suspected the proposals weren"t as green as EirGrid was claiming. Cllr Noel Leonard said that, like Cllr D"Arcy, he believed this was a way of bringing in supplies from nuclear stations across the sea. Cllr Brian Fitzgerald took issue with the company"s claim that only five or six per cent of lines worldwide were underground. He said this applied to the last 60 years and didn"t show the last five years with countries like Australia and several European countries opting to put the cables underground. Cllr Phil Cantwell asked EirGrid if it had considered splitting the 400kV line into two separate 220kV lines, which could be located 'a long distance apart' and could be either underground or overground. Cllr Joe Reilly said that if the planning decision was in favour of EirGrid, the company still wouldn"t get access to land. 'There is widespread fear and apprehension and I have never seen such opposition in all my years as a councillor,' he said. 'You may get planning permission but the communities are opposed and it will be impossible to implement it as you will not get access to lands. It is time to step back from this headlong rush,' Cllr Reilly added. In its presentation, EirGrid told the council that the population of Meath grew more than 21 per cent between 2002 and 2006 and electricity consumption had increased by over 38 per cent - equating to approximately 4,000 new electricity connections per year. Andrew Cooke, director of grid development, said: 'For EirGrid, our only motivation is to provide a safe, high-quality, reliable and affordable supply for all customers, including people and businesses in Meath and the north-east.' He said the project served two key purposes: to provide essential reinforcement to the network in the north-east, to ensure balanced regional development and to facilitate the flow of electricity between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. He said the recently released report, commissioned by Energy Minister Eamon Ryan, found underground cables currently did not compare to overhead lines in terms of reliability and security of electricity supply. Tom& aacute;s Mahony, a project engineer with EirGrid, told the special meeting of the council much of the infrastructure in the region was built 40 years ago and these lines would simply not be able to carry the amount of power required to satisfy demand. 'Meath and the surrounding counties urgently need additional transmission lines to ensure a reliable electricity supply for the future,' he said. He told the councillors that repairs to overhead lines could be completed in a matter of hours, while repairs to underground cables could take weeks and it was best practice throughout the world to erect overhead lines. He added that there were electromagnetic fields everywhere - not just those generated by overhead power lines - and stressed that the company complied with international guidelines and standards. EirGrid also informed councillors that enagement with the stakeholders was continuing and that information offices were now open in Navan and Carrickmacross. Mr Mahony said: 'We have met several individuals, groups and public representatives since opening our information centre in Navan and are eager to meet many more people over the coming weeks and months. It is vital there is open, factual and balanced information. We urge councillors and members of the public to avail of the information centres to discuss the proposals, have questions answered and provide EirGrid with information, which then can be considered as part of the decision-making process for the projects.' In its submission, the North-East Pylon Pressure (NEPP) group said it was the overall representative group for the people in Monaghan, Cavan and Meath who want the cables to go underground. Colin Andrews said the group had active local committees in more than 30 towns, villages or parishes, representing more than 45,000 people, and were also in contact with a similar campaign formed in the North to oppose pylons across counties Tyrone and Armagh. He said that the proposed pylons would be 30 to 40 metres high and compared that with the Tower of Loyd in Kells, which is 31 metres high. He said the pylons would be the size of 'four or five axle trailers put in a square and 15 tractors piled on top of them'. He claimed that, these days, countries all over the world were putting cables underground and that, in Germany, 50 per cent of new lines were underground. Mr Andrews said that of 106 studies carried out recently, 60 found that electromagnetic fields from overhead power lines cause cancer, 30 were inconclusive and only six said that they don"t cause cancer. A considerable number of leading international experts believe that electro-magnetic fields increased the risk of leukaemia in children, he went on. He said the cost of putting in overhead lines was increased by long delays in implementing the projects and much higher levels of compensation to affected landowners. Electricity power lines had a significant negative impact on both land and property values and up to €1 billion could be slashed off the value of properties in the area, he said.