Local councillors have expressed dismay that ‘related works’ are continuing in connection with the controversial Meenbog Wind Farm.
Works were supposed to cease at the site following a major landslide last November.
Hundreds of cubic metres of peat and debris entered into a stream and on to the Mournebeg River from the site of the wind farm, near Ballybofey on the Donegal-Tyrone border.
However, at today’s meeting of the Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District, a senior Donegal County Council engineer confirmed that ongoing works at Barnesmore Gap were connected to the development.
Mr Bryan Cannon told the meeting that all works were ordered to cease at the site, except ‘mitigation works’ to prevent further bogslides.
Cllr Gary Doherty at the site back in November.
Following a query by Cllr Gary Doherty, however, Mr Cannon admitted that the current roadworks on the N15 through Barnesmore were part of the windfarm development.
In response, Cllr Doherty said he was informed the developer of Meenbog, Invis Energy, was currently laying cables along the road.
“Those roadworks are causing headaches for motorists and are connected to the wind farm site – these are private works, not public roadworks.” Cllr Doherty said.
“They (Invis) are treating the multi-agency investigation as a box ticking exercise and that’s a slap in the face to all of us. All works were supposed to stop.”
Cllr Martin Harley agreed, adding that the developers were ‘putting the two fingers up to us.’ The Fine Gael representative also claimed other ‘related works’ were continuing on the site, and not just on the N15.
Cllr Patrick McGowan also said there was ‘a lot of work going on’ along the N15 in relation to the wind farm.
Cllr McBrearty asked that, when all investigations have been concluded, they should be made public.
“There should also be prosecutions pending from this investigation because of the scale of what happened. The public needs the full facts,” Cllr McBrearty said.
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