A campaign group opposed to a wind farm on the Carlow-Kilkenny border has criticised An Bord Pleanála (ABP) for shutting it out of a new planning decision despite its interest in the project being recognised by the High Court.
The Rural Residents Wind Aware and Environment Group was excluded from the planning appeal board’s decision in recent weeks even though one of its members sought access to information on the case with a view of making a formal observation.
The board’s latest decision on the wind farm was finalised in early September, more than a month before the legal deadline. The early decision came despite a big backlog of ABP cases that has led it to apologise for serious delays with decisions on housing and other developments.
The campaign group received court permission in January to proceed with a judicial review action against ABP’s decision last November allowing White Hill Wind Ltd to build seven turbines at the Castlecomer plateau, between Carlow town and Kilkenny city. The court hearing is scheduled for December.
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White Hill Wind, which is part of Co Cavan-based energy group Galetech, returned to ABP in June seeking permission to change the location of two turbines. A board direction signed on September 4th by ABP’s chairman, Peter Mullan, granted permission on the basis that the alteration was not a material change.
That direction said the decision “not to invite submissions or observations from the public” on whether the change was material was in line with the Planning and Development Act of 2002. Provisions in the same law that allow ABP to invite submissions “by such person or class of person” as it considers appropriate were not invoked.
However, the campaign group believed the proposed changes were material and wanted the opportunity to make a formal submission to the planning body.
“We as a community group are very dissatisfied by the decision of An Bord Pleanála to exclude us from the decision-making process on an amendment to a planning application even though the courts recognised that we had an interest in it in January 2024,” said Fiona Donnelly, a representative of the group.
“Adrian O’Neill, a member of our group, wrote to the board repeatedly looking for information on the case with a view to lodging an observation but was denied access.”
Asked about its stewardship of the case, ABP said little apart from saying it complied with planning law.
“Once An Bord Pleanála has made a decision in any case its jurisdiction in the matter is spent and its practice is that it does not make any additional comment on any such decision,” the board said.
“An Bord Pleanála’s decision-making functions are undertaken in accordance with the relevant statutory provisions under the planning Acts.”
There was no board response on whether it was unusual to grant consent for an amendment while a judicial review on the wider decision was in preparation.
Neither was there any response from ABP on why the campaign group was excluded from a planning case initiated six months after the court recognised its interest.
Similarly, there was no board response to the question of whether it rushed through the decision because of the court proceedings.
Asked whether any recent comparable cases were decided with similar pace and what the average length of time the board was taking this year to determine cases, ABP said it “does not compile information relating to matters covered in your additional queries”.
James Carville, project manager with Galetech for the White Hill project, had no comment on the ABP case besides saying the company “followed due process”.
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