Landowners pledge to fight wind farm plans

LANDOWNERS in Bantry have threatened to stop the ESB accessing their properties, as a dispute over health fears comes to a head with the planned erection of high voltage overhead cables.

ESB Networks has notified nearly 40 landowners that works on a proposed cable route between a new wind farm in Glantia and an ESB substation in Ballylickey will commence next Tuesday.

But the Bantry Concerned Action Group, supported by farm organisations, warned they would resist entry to their lands.

“We will not let the ESB on to our private properties,” group chairman Joe Burke said yesterday.

He claimed the ESB was “jumping the gun”, as an Oireachtas sub-committee was still in discussions with the local group over the erection of the 38KV line.

Mr Burke said landowners are prepared to facilitate the ESB in laying the cable underground.

“We are not opposed to the wind farm but we are concerned about the health risks, especially the threat of leukaemia that the overhead cable presents,” he said.

However, the ESB said it had a duty to fulfil a contract to a private developer to erect a cable to a wind farm at Dromourneen, near Bantry.

“The ESB is legally obliged to provide the cable in the most economically viable and efficient manner,” a spokesperson said.

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has accused the ESB of bypassing the consultation process. Its rural development chairman John Heney said the ESB reneged on a promise to employ an independent consultant chosen by the Bantry Action Group.

“Instead, the ESB demanded the consultant chosen to facilitate the process was taken from a list pre-selected by the ESB,” he said.

“Landowners living in the path of this proposed wind farm have health concerns, planning concerns. They are very unhappy that their rights are playing second fiddle to the interests of a private entrepreneur,” Mr Heney added.

However, the ESB said: “After a recent meeting in Macroom, we offered an independent consultant, with certain criteria laid down, but the local group was not prepared to accept those conditions.”