The concerns of the local community have been recognised by Kilkenny County Council: that’s the view of a local Councillor after the local authority recommended the refusal of Manogate Ltd’s proposed 10 wind turbine development at Ballyfasy.
Speaking to KCLR News, Cllr Tomas Breathnach (Lab) praised the resilience of local residents in stating their case against the proposal while noting the open levels of communication between elected members, the Council Executive and the local community in recent months.
At a public meeting held at County Hall yesterday, the Chief Executive’s report into the proposal concluded that Manogate had provided insufficient information for both the proposed wind farm and grid connection works.
Presenting the report, Kilkenny County Council Planner Niall Sheehan said the local authority had recommended refusal with “visual impact” cited as the primary reason.
The Land Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) received by the Council was “not sufficiently robust”, with Mr Sheehan adding: with the proposed “turbines too close at too great a height towards residential receptors, overbearing and dominating them and this is not withstanding minimum distances which are achieved as per the 2006 (wind energy) guidelines and 2019 wind energy guidelines and (represents) an unacceptable loss of residential and visual amenity.
“The secondary reason is insufficient information. This could ordinarily be given an opportunity for resolution. The grid connection application is going be refused also on insufficient information (grounds).”
Kilkenny County Council will now submit its refusal recommendation, in addition to the comments of elected members and private citizens who opposed the proposal to An Coimisiún Pleanála, with the planning body scheduled to make its recommendation on the proposal in 18 weeks’ time (from Monday next, February 23rd). No appeal can be made to its final decision.
Following the meeting, Cllr Breathnach offered the following reaction to KCLR News reporter Dermot Keyes.
