News from down the country

national | environment | news report Monday October 13, 2008 22:07 by Contaminated Crow

Incineration, waste, pylons, water extraction and wind turbines

The An Bord Pleanala oral hearing into the proposed meat and bonemeal (MBM) incinerator for College Proteins at Nobber, Co. Meath began on Wednesday October in Navan. The local GP described the proposal as potentially a most significant threat to the health of vulnerable groups in the local population, while Larry McEntee, founder of opposition group NEAI, alleged College Proteins was in breach of planning conditions, its IPCC licence and waste management legislation, claiming its circumvention of proper planning procedures resulted in road spillages and odours on clothes, roads and houses. (Source: Meath Chronicle 11/10/08, p. 12)

Usk and District Residents Association Ltd. (UDRAL) is planning further legal action over the Greenstar application to set up a superdump at Usk, near Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, which has already been the subject of two An Bord Pleanala oral hearings. UDRAL’s AGM takes place on Tuesday 14th October at 8.30pm in Walls of Kilgowan. Des Henry of UDRAL said a key objection was that the dump would service the entire country and questioned ‘why can Cork County Council successfully stop Greenstar from opening a new superdump in Ballygarue, Co. Cork while Kildare planners are willing to accept that waste from Cork can be dumped in south Kildare? We still have no answers from the Kildare county manager on this’. (Source: Kildare Nationalist 10/10/08, p.3)

A report by the Askon Consulting Group, commissioned by North East Pylon Pressure (NEPP) recommends the adoption of an underground system as an alternative to the 400kV overground north-south Inter Connector proposed by EirGrid and opposed by NEPP. (Source: Northern Standard 9/10/08, p. 6)

The Shannon Protection Alliance (SPA) is shortly to engage a legal team to advise on legal options for opposing Dublin City Council’s proposed extraction of water from the river Shannon, according to SPA PRO PJ Walsh. Mr Walsh has finished a 100 mile sponsored walk from Lough Ree to Dublin, where he joined the Dail protest to highlight ‘the iniquity of the funding of large scale potentially disastrous projects by the taxpayer, while voluntary organizations who rightly oppose these plans receive no funding whatsoever’. (Source: Longford Leader 10/10/08, p. 6)

Residents of Ballycommane, west Limerick, have lost free-to-air TV services due to the erection of an 18-turbine wind farm in the area which is directly in line with the transmitter at Maghera, County Clare which relays reception to the local area. The developers of the wind farm are reported to have offered those affected a one-year free subscription to Sky, which most residents are reportedly unhappy with due to the short-term nature of the solution and the loss of their right to receive free-to-air TV. (Source: Kerryman 8/10/08, p.3)