LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Cork couple lose challenge to planning permission for windfarm near their home 

Credit:  By Ann O'Loughlin | Irish Examiner | May 30, 2018 | www.irishexaminer.com ~~

A couple have lost their legal challenge to An Bord Pleanála’s permission for construction of a wind farm near their home in Co Cork.

Klaus Balz and his wife Hanna Heubach run a family horticulture business from their home at Bear na Gaoithe, located 637 metres from the proposed wind farm at Cleanrath, Inchigeelagh.

After a permission granted to Cleanrath Windfarm Ltd for construction of 11 wind turbines was overturned by the High Court in February 2016, the developer brought a fresh planning application.

Cork County Council granted permission for six turbines subject to 40 conditions. However, the Board, by a 3/1 decision of April 2017 on various appeals, granted permission for 11 turbines subject to 22 conditions. That permission was in line with many, but not all, recommendations of a Board inspector.

At the High Court today Mr Justice Robert Haughton dismissed all grounds of the couple’s judicial review challenge to the Board’s decision. He adjourned the matter for two weeks to allow the sides consider the judgment before final orders are made and costs issues are addressed.

Among the couple’s complaints was the Board inspector had failed to assess the submissions and scientific research materials presented to support their claims the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines, and a UK department of energy publication on which those guidelines were based, are out-dated and unfit for purpose.

They also complained the inspector failed to assess that noise from wind farms may have a profound effect on human beings.

Mr Justice Haughton found the Board was not required to examine, analyse, evaluate and assess every submission and scientific paper put before it for the purposes of an Environmental Impact Assessment.

The Board, he also held, had examined and evaluated the couple’s submissions and scientific evidence in relation to “amplitude modulation” – the impact of the ‘swish’ noise generated from the movement of turbine blades.

The fact the Board had not adopted a particular condition recommended by its inspector – that noise limits should not exceed specified levels and that Cleanrath should submit a noise monitoring compliance programme before commencing development – did not invalidate its approval, he held.

He dismissed other arguments concerning the impact of the wind farm on the Gearagh special area of conservation. The couple had argued a lack of certainty about the cause of damage to the Gearagh SAC as a result of flood events over the last number of years meant the Board and its inspector could not have concluded beyond reasonable scientific doubt the project would not adversely affect the integrity of the Gearagh SAC.

The judge said, while the best scientific knowledge considered by the Board and inspector could not have definitively answered what historically has caused the degradation of the Gearagh SAC, that was not necessary to answer the “real” question – whether the proposed development, including all proposed mitigation measures, will affect the integrity of the Gearagh SAC in its current state.

The Board had expressly stated it had regard to the conservation objectives, he said. In carrying out an appropriate assessment, the Board had regard to the best scientific knowledge in accepting those mitigation measures would mean the proposed development would not affect the integrity of the Gearagh SAC.

Source:  By Ann O'Loughlin | Irish Examiner | May 30, 2018 | www.irishexaminer.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon