Former Minister Mary O’Rourke has offered to lead a cross-party delegation to the county manager’s office in protest at the proposed Gaybrook windfarm, a development her parliamentary colleague Deputy James Bannon referred to as: “A serious blight on a tourism honeypot... in a densely populated area”.
“I am prepared to lead that delegation, be in the middle of it, and the back of it and I’m behind you fully,” said Deputy O’Rourke.
The two TDs, along with councillors Johnnie Penrose, Colm Arthur, Peter Burke, and Ken Glynn, addressed around 150 people at the latest meeting of the Midlands Wind Turbine Action Group (MIWTAG ) in the Bloomfield Hotel on Monday evening, August 9 after being updated on the status of the application to erect the windfarm in the Gaybrook area.
Despite the State being committed under the Kyoto agreement to providing 40 per cent of its energy from renewables within 10 years, up from 8 per cent in 2005, all six opposed the plan. A decision on the project is due from the council on September 13.
Also referring to Gaybrook as “a residential area”, Cllr Colm Arthur called the plan “an insult to people’s intelligence” and described the applicant as “a bould child in school”.
“It’s something we don’t want,” said Cllr Ken Glynn.
“There’ll be a lot of people at the county manager’s door telling him the people of this area don’t want it.”
In January, a Cavan-based firm, Gaeltech Energy Developments Ltd (GED ) applied to Westmeath County Council to erect a dozen, 135m high, 2.5mW wind turbines. After 336 submissions from the public and a request for additional information on 32 points from the council, GED revised its plans and re-submitted them on July 20.
The new plan has reduced the number of turbines from 12 to nine, reduced the maximum height of four of the turbines to 125m, re-located the switchroom and anemometer nearly a kilometre to the south, and proposed running the subsequent electricity underground to the Mullingar sub-station in Irishtown.
Before getting the meeting under way, MIWTAG chairman and Gaybrook resident, Tom Wallace, stressed that “no member [of MIWTAG] is opposed to renewable energy, just opposed to the siting of this windfarm”.
However, after going through the revised plan point by point, Mr Wallace doubted GED’s committment to putting the cables underground, and felt the council hadn’t “satisfactorily answered” how the Gaybrook site was chosen. He also believed that not enough attention was given to alternative sites in the county that were earmarked for such developments in the County Development Plan 2008-14.
A suggestion these turbines be sited in the bogs was turned down, as these are owned by Bord na Mona, a firm that is pursuing its own wind power agenda.
Mr Wallace also criticised how GED is siting three of the turbine towers within 200m distance to the nearest house, the shortest distance recommended by the Department of the Environment, despite getting permission from two of the owners to do so.
“It’s like they’re telling Westmeath County Council they know what they’re doing and to hell with the rest of us,” said Mr Wallace.
He also criticised the methods of suggested disbursement GED offered for the €2,500 per turbine per annum to be donated to a local community fund, and demanded the council pay for new photomontages because “they’re very expensive”.
He concluded by asking all involved to re-submit their objections to the council, and reminded the audience that this would be free if they could still produce the receipt from their initial €20-fee objection.
