“It is with much regret that the Delvin-Raharney-Ballivor Wind Action Group issues this statement that the planning permission granted in July by An Bord Pleanála for 9 x 185m turbines at Bracklyn-Delvin cannot be overturned at this point in time.
Despite the Bord’s Inspector concluding that “the proposed development will have a significant impact within a 5km radius of the site”, he concludes that the visual impact has to be assessed versus our renewable energy targets. All other negative impacts such as on property prices, impacts associated with permanent noise, environmental impact of industrial levels of concrete, roads and cabling, impact on bird life and bats etc are considered acceptable between developer and Bord Pleanála, with little to no consideration of community voices.
The biggest regret of our community group is that despite the clear need for emissions reduction, as well as energy security, further development of wind energy is not the answer and this is being proven out through the multiple warnings of national power outages, as highlighted daily in the media.
We now face the significant and profound impact on our environment from this monstrous industrial development, with little positive return for climate or energy sustainability.
However we will continue to seek ways to legally delay this development at Bracklyn.
We know that Bord na Mona plan to submit an application for planning permission for 26 x 200m turbines through the bogs from Coolronan and Delvin all the way to Raharney, Killyon & Ballivor.
This group has learned hugely through the Bracklyn windfarm fiasco and will apply these learnings to do everything possible to stop the BnM Windfarm.
With no environmentally responsible or economically sound large scale electrical storage solution, it is past time that government and the Dept of Environment & Climate move towards developing a balanced energy system composed of other renewable energies and not almost exclusively wind,as is the current situation.
It’s past time for a logical approach to our energy crisis and beyond time to stop impacting rural communities with largely pointless energy infrastructure.”
Delvin Raharney Ballivor Wind Action Group
