Council ignores its environmental section to grant wind farm planning permission

Despite a strong recommendation from its environmental section to refuse planning, Limerick County Council has granted permission to develop an eight-turbine wind farm near the west Limerick village of Athea.

A senior engineer in the environmental section had recommended refusal, citing the negative impacts the 250ft turbines would have on the local hen harrier population, a species that comes under the EU Birds Directive.

Saying the status of the hen harrier was now a cause of major concern nationally, the senior official wrote: "The introduction of wind turbines to the area would clearly represent a further significant pressure on the species."

Adding that, at the very least, the precautionary principle must apply, he recommended refusal.

He said wind farms in the area should not be permitted until adequate research into their impact on the local hen harrier population had been carried out.

He wrote: "It is quite clear that there are a number of areas within the county which are not suitable for wind-farm developments. The Athea site appears to be one of them."

However, the council's planning section granted permission after a report by an environmental consultant concluded that a wind farm would have no significant impact on the numbers of hen harriers breeding in an area south of the wind farm.

The council has included a condition that an independent consultant must put in place a monitoring programme on the hen harriers for the first 12 months of the operation of the wind farm. The council has also included a condition that a 5.5 km power line connecting the wind farm to the national grid be installed underground.

It is the second wind-farm project to be granted planning permission by the county council in the past month. The other relates to an Eirtricity project to develop a 17-turbine project in the parishes of Tournafulla and Templeglentine.

The promoter of the Athea project, National Windpower Ltd, has also applied to the Department of the Marine to investigate the feasibility of locating an offshore £100 million wind farm south of the Shannon estuary.

The Athea project granted planning permission by the council is one of six currently proposed in the Shannon estuary area.

Three are proposed for the Co Clare side of the estuary, including one £15 million wind farm proposed for Moneypoint power station.

Further turbines are proposed at Tarbert in north Co Kerry. A decision is due on that application later this month.