Main pic: Drone footage of the November 2020 bog slide at the Meenbog Wind Farm.
The Court of Appeal has ruled that planning deviations mean the entire Meenbog Wind Farm near Ballybofey is ‘unauthorised’.
It has also upheld an order secured by Donegal County Council earlier this year stopping works at the site where a major bog slide occurred four years ago with “significant environmental consequences”.
Ms Justice Nuala Butler ruled yesterday that the appeal brought by Planree Limited and Mid Cork Electrical Limited against restraints imposed on them by the local authority preventing further development was to be ‘wholly dismissed’.
Last April, the council secured the High Court order prohibiting further development of the wind farm between Barnesmore Gap and Ballybofey.
Mr Justice David Holland’s order restrained the appellants from finishing their “largely complete” 19-turbine project on primarily blanket bog.
The judge said the companies also agreed to apply to An Bord Pleanála for ‘substitute consent’ – to regularise the status of what were “multiple” deviations from the planning permission – but had argued that this could take some years given processing backlogs.
The judge said the parties agreed the wind farm works caused or at least contributed to the occurrence of the bog slide but that those groundworks conformed with permissions granted. Both sides agreed there was no evidence that the slide was caused by the developers’ negligence or the planning deviations, he said.
The developers submitted that between 90 and 95 per cent of the groundworks were complete, with turbine and rotor installation the primary outstanding works.
The companies appealed the order halting further development, arguing that they should be allowed to complete the remaining authorised elements of the farm and to operate it, pending the board’s decision on their substitute consent application.
In the Court of Appeal judgment delivered yesterday, Justice Butler said Planree and Mid-Cork Electrical had come to accept there were “multiple deviations” from their planning permission for the site.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, the council refused planning permission for works linked to the controversial development.
Mid-Cork Electrical Ltd sought the go-ahead for the construction of three new culverts, to replace existing ones, along the N15 at Barnesmore Gap.
They were to be used to connect the wind farm, which is only partially completed, to the National Grid. However, council planners this week refused permission for the latest application, stating it was ‘premature’ given ongoing legal proceedings.