Opponents gear up for New Year EirGrid battle

Residents and landowners across Meath and the north-east are gearing up for a New Year battle with EirGrid after the power transmission company indicated this week that it will imminently lodge the planning application for the 400kV power line from Meath through Cavan and Monaghan. An advertisement in this week's Meath Chronicle indicates that a direct planning application is to be made to Bord Pleanála via its strategic infrastructure development (SID) fast-track process, 55 kilometres of which is across Meath, from Woodtown near Drumree, to Clonturkan, Co Cavan. The application is expected to be lodged with Bord Pleanala within the coming week. Controversy over the planned powerlines has been raging for over two years, and a mass meeting in Trim on October 2007 saw a coming together of opponents of three original suggested routes put forward by EirGrid. The North-East Pylon Pressure (NEPP) group has been leading the campaign against the power lines since then, fighting a PR battle with EirGrid over the past 12 months, as well as opposing the pylons proposals on the ground and in the courts. The eventual route selected last April was Route 3B, which follows the existing 400kV power line from the Woodland substation near Drumree through Kiltale, Kilmessan, Bective, Philpotstown and east of Dunderry and Bohermeen, crossing the N3 near Finnegan's Crossroads and running east of Kells, where it split into two options - 3A and 3B in the townlands of Red Island and Clongill. Route line option 3B crosses the N52 near Raffin Cross and runs west of Nobber and Kilmainhamwood towards the proposed substation. Yesterday (Tuesday), NEPP criticised the timing of the planning application in the run-up to the Christmas holiday period, but EirGrid said Bord Pleanala has agreed to an extension in the period of consultation on the application. "EirGrid is finalising the planning application for the 400kV Meath-Tyrone Interconnection Development Project, with the intention of submitting it to Bord Pleanála in the coming days," the company said. "The process provides for a statutory consultation period of seven weeks. Recognising that the Christmas break is almost upon us, EirGrid have asked Bord Pleanála that the statutory consultation period would commence only in the new year, and that the consultation period be extended by at least a further three weeks, to 10 weeks. We are pleased to say that Bord Pleanála has acceded to this request," said an EirGrid spokesperson. EirGrid says the environmental impact statement will be available to download online and be on display in several venues throughout Meath, Cavan and Monaghan as soon as the planning application is made. NEPP said the application is no surprise and changes nothing. "We always knew it would come and we have been preparing for it for the past two years, ever since our campaign began," its spokesperson, Liam Cahill, said Yesterday (Tuesday). He said EirGrid's submission of an application for planning approval does not alter the fundamental issues and choices raised by NEPP's campaign. "Since our campaign began, NEPP has amassed a vast amount of international and national data and research in support of our case for undergrounding cables. We intend to deploy those resources, together with the best possible technical and legal expertise, fully and effectively in the course of the consideration of EirGrid's application for planning approval. We will forensically dissect the environmental impact assessment that must accompany the application. We will make our own comprehensive submission to the SIB and will be requesting a full oral hearing on the application," he added. The SIB planning process, by law, gives a role to local authorities to make their own comprehensive submissions to the board. NEPP has called on the county councils of Monaghan, Cavan and Meath to make submissions expressing their democratically-based opposition to pylons and in favour of the underground alternative. "In addition, any group specifically impacted negatively by EirGrid's proposal is entitled to make a submission, in addition to the overall NEPP submission. This category includes farming organisations, tourism bodies, GAA clubs and county boards, schools, heritage groups, environmental groups and individual citizens. NEPP calls on all affected groups to study how EirGrid's application affects them and to make a submission in response."