Donegal Alternatives to Pylons Public Meeting

donegal | rights and freedoms | event notice Monday February 08, 2010 23:37 by Donegal Alternatives to Pylons donegalatp at gmail dot com

Donegal Alternatives to Pylons are holding a Public Meeting in the Dungloe Library building (Ionad Teampall Chroine) on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 7.30pm.

Donegal Alternatives to Pylons are holding a Public Meeting in the Library, (Ionad Teampall Chroine) Dungloe on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 7.30pm. The meeting will discuss landowners’ rights following the granting of planning permission for a 102km long 110KV high voltage power line from Binbane to Letterkenny via Glenties and from Glenties to Gweedore via Dungloe. The meeting will also draw attention to the relationship between the proposed high voltage power line and the numerous planning applications for wind turbines across Donegal.
Power lines and pylons are not subject to compulsory purchase orders and people have the right to refuse ESB and Eirgrid permission to come onto their land even though planning permission has been granted. Donegal Alternatives to Pylons are advising landowners to lock their gates and erect signs refusing access to the ESB, Eirgrid and their agents. Landowners should not sign any documents presented to them by the ESB, Eirgrid or their agents.
'If you sign way leave documents you are signing away your ownership of the land under and around the power lines, poles and pylons. The power companies could later sell or lease the land to other utility companies to do what they will with it. There is also the question of who is responsible in law if an accident should occur?’
These lines are not to bring power into Donegal but to take power out from wind farms. Donegal already has more turbines than any other Irish county, ten times more than Wicklow and Mayo, for instance, while the Midlands have none because the majority of the Irish voting public live in Dublin and the Midlands and they do not want turbines blighting their views.
It is ironic that Donegal is being praised in the Lonely Planet Guide for its rugged beauty while the Government is promoting policies which destroy the landscape with over ground power lines and wind turbines. If allowed to continue these policies will ruin Donegal's infant tourism industry, the county’s largest employer, as well as endanger our health and the livelihood of farmers.
The cost of undergrounding the line is only twice the cost of over grounding and, at the Oral Hearing into the 110kv project held in Letterkenny last year, the ESB admitted they had not even considered ducting the line alongside existing roads. By undergrounding you actually save money because you don't have to worry about outages following storms and there is no need for tree and hedge-trimming.
The group say that this is an election issue and that they will be lobbying candidates in advance of the Donegal South West by-election and the next general election. The Public Meeting is in the Dungloe Library building on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 7.30pm.