Wind farm objectors given leave to lodge appeal

An environmental group has secured leave to appeal against the rejection of its challenge to a grant of permission for a wind farm in Co Laois.

At the Commercial Court yesterday, Mr Justice Robert Haughton said People Over Wind had raised a number of grounds of appeal of exceptional importance which it was desirable, in the public interest, for the Court of Appeal to determine. The appeal should be expedited, he added.

The judge last month dismissed the challenge by People Over Wind and another entity, Environmental Action Alliance Ireland, to An Bord Pleanála’s June 2014 grant of permission to Coillte Teoranta for construction of 18 power generating wind turbines near Cullenagh, close to the villages of Timahoe and Ballyroan, Co Laois.