By Ryan Sands
A PUBLIC inquiry into a controversial Mournes wind farm proposal will be held in early spring.
The Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) recently confirmed that it will conduct the inquiry into the bid to construct eight 142.5m turbines in the Gruggandoo, Grugganskeagh and Mullaghgarve townlands outside Hilltown on 12 and 13 March 2025.
This comes exactly nine years after the major application was submitted by ABO Wind Ltd – now rebranded as ABO Energy – and two years after then Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon stated that she intended to initiate a public inquiry into it.
The proposal had initially been for 12 turbines, with heights of 125m, though this was refused by Ms Mallon’s predecessor, Chris Hazzard, in November 2016 – regionally significant proposals require a ministerial decision – prompting the subsequent lodging of an amended application.
In October 2020, the council hosted a special meeting to decide a corporate position on the current wind farm plan, and, despite chief planning officer Anthony McKay recommending that it be opposed due to it being “unacceptable in planning terms”, councillors voted 35-3 in favour of requesting that the minister call a public inquiry.
Mr McKay had highlighted concerns with the scale of the development within a sensitive landscape – a designated area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) and special countryside area (SCA) – of “exceptionally high scenic quality”.
A presentation was also made by ABO’s Tamasin Fraser and Thomas Bell, in which they highlighted the environmental, community and economic benefits they believed the development would bring to the area.
These included the generation of enough electricity “to power over 27,000 homes”, a “community benefit package totalling £3.25m” and “up to £9.8m additional business rates over the 25-year project lifespan”.
On signalling her intention to call a public inquiry in March 2022, Ms Mallon noted that “there has been a significant level of public representation in relation to the proposal, both for and against it”.
“I am a huge advocate for renewable energy that will create sustainable infrastructure for future generations,” she said.
“Green infrastructure represents a real opportunity for tackling the climate emergency and helping boost the economy, but this should never be at the cost of the surrounding environment.”
Ms Mallon also highlighted concerns among Department for Infrastructure (DfI) officials that “the proposal would have an unacceptable adverse impact on visual amenity and landscape character due to the sensitivity of the landscape within the Mournes AONB and SCA”.
“There were also concerns that the development would adversely impact on a specified tourism asset and impacts on the integrity of the setting of a regionally significant scheduled monument in the locality,” she continued.
“I have carefully considered the recommendation of my planning officials, including the potential significant environmental, social and economic benefits that could accrue from such a development, and including the contribution it could make towards achieving the ambitions of the Energy Strategy and forthcoming Climate Change Bill.
“However, given the range of important matters at stake, I believe that further discussion of the issues at a public inquiry and the benefit of an independent report from the PAC would assist in coming to a final decision on this application.”
PAC guidance on its procedures for public inquiries states that, in order to ensure proceedings run efficiently, it may ‘organise a pre-inquiry or pre-hearing meeting’, the purpose of which would be to ‘outline the arrangements and deal with procedural queries’.
It also advises that there is no requirement for ‘interested third parties’ – objectors or supporters who submitted correspondence over the course of the application process – to ‘correspond separately with the commission in order to register an interest in the inquiry’.
‘The commission will write to the applicant, the department and the third parties advising them of: the time and place of the inquiry or hearing and any related meeting; the arrangements for submitting written statements of case; and the way in which the proceedings will be conducted,’ it continues.
‘A questionnaire will be enclosed with the letter to the third parties, asking them to indicate how they wish their comments to be considered.
‘There are three options: rely on your original representation and take no further part in the proceedings; submit a written statement of case and take no further part in the proceedings; or submit a written statement of case and participate in the inquiry or hearing.’
The document also says that ‘the substance of the representations is of more significance than the number of people making representations, and it is advantageous for people sharing a common cause to pool resources’.
After the completion of the public inquiry, a report and recommendation will be sent to DfI, which – through its current minister John O’Dowd – will make its final decision on the application and publish the PAC report.
