A public information evening that was to be held in Ballycallan Hall last Tuesday, about the proposed windfarm in Kilmanagh village, has been postponed until this coming Tuesday.
In 2021 the village was re-designated from a rural village to a rural node, with the area having had a village status dating back to the 1300’s. The development by Enerco was propsed in 2022, when letters were distributed to residents to say that 8 wind turbines would be erected just one kilometer from Kilmanagh village. The community of Ballycallan says it’s not anti-wind energy, as there are two wind farms already in the area, providing 34% of the county’s energy.
Speaking to KCLR News, Michael Egan says that the decision to resdesignate the village as a rural node, will be detremental, saying “I think Kilmanagh village will be sterilised from a planning perspective, and from a development perspective. It’s a beautiful village, there’s so many things that can be developed here, and we’re pulling together a group to get a vision for the community; things like housing for the elderly, all this sort of stuff. We’re not sure that we’ll even get planning on this village again. It’s a rural node now, it was a village, so people are really, really concerned out here.”