A TD is calling for revised Wind Energy Development Guidelines to “prioritise meaningful community consultation” when it comes to addressing householder concerns over the development of wind farms.
Independent TD Carol Nolan was speaking this morning (Thursday, November 11) after tabling a priority oral question on the matter in the Dáil seeking to establish when the revised guidelines will be published.
Deputy Nolan raised concerns over both the noise of wind turbines and the ‘flicker’ (the flickering shadow created by the rotating blades when the sun is low in the sky).
Responding to the Laois-Offaly TD’s question, the minister of state with responsibility for planning, Peter Burke, said that it was “not possible to provide a timeline for publication because of the highly technical nature of the noise aspects of the review”.
The current legislation around wind turbine guidance dates from 2016 and is “widely accepted to be deficient in a number of areas”, Nolan claimed.
“Given the scale of the government’s ambition around the future of-shore and in-shore wind farms, it is absolutely vital that the right of communities to have a formative say in their development or opposition is protected,” she argued.
The TD claimed that proposals for the Lemanaghan Bog wind-farm project in Co. Offaly were “ignored and dismissed”, despite 2,300 substantial and highly detailed submissions opposing the project.
“This says a lot about how seriously government take community engagement.
“While it is true that individual wind farm developers must comply with the conditions attached to planning permission, including those relating to community engagement and community benefit schemes, the difficulty often begins at the pre-planning stage where there is a charade of compliance around meaningful consultation,” Nolan argued.
She claimed: “Wind energy developers say they have been committed to implementing the current Code of Practice which emphasises full and transparent engagement with local communities, but this is not the experience of many communities who feel helpless in the face of the commercial power of these companies.
“Genuine consultation in this regard means acknowledging that communities have a fundamental right to responsibly shape the future of their areas,” Nolan concluded.