'We don’t want any more of these wind farms' – Dungiven public meeting hears

A public meeting was held in Dungiven on Monday (March 4) at Glór community hall in respect of Benbradagh and Banagher wind farm proposals and protecting the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The meeting was well attended and there was plenty of participation from the audience.

There was representation from SDLP and Aontú, however it was confirmed that other parties did not respond to the invite or declined the offer to attend.

Sinn Féin's Sean McGlinchey stated that he was 'happy to speak to people individually however their position was that they would wait until planning have made their decision'.

There was discontent and disappointment from the audience regarding lack of representation from local councillors.

One participant asked 'what are they getting paid for if they can’t represent the views of the wider community and not just those of a select few?'

The main focus of the evening was that Dungiven is not a community against renewable energy, but a community demanding protection for the natural and built heritage and protection of key local landmarks, that give the area its identity with the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

One participant stated 'there will be nothing left for the next generation to write poetry and songs about and feel a sense of connection to. There’s a very simple message that you need to get out…We don’t want any more of these wind farms'.

Another participant added 'much of the area was already destroyed by the influx of more wind farms'.

One participant asked 'why can’t they take some of the windfarms to the Belfast hills where the electricity is most needed'.

The audience felt strongly that the community has already played a very big part in contributing to the renewable energy endeavor but were strongly against sacrificing more Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or key natural landmarks.

One businessman stated: “If all the wind applications in our area get the go head, we’ll basically end up living in the middle of a big wind farm, we might as well scrape our AONB status and people will drive by Dungiven onto the next place, because these massive turbines over our landscape will look oppressive.”

Another business person said that “people flock from the cities to his campsite to enjoy the wild uninterrupted scenery and peace and feared they would just drive on by if Dungiven gets more of these wind farms approved.”

He said: “Customers are very clear about what they want and don’t want, and they don’t want to be looking out onto an industrial landscape when maybe they’ve just driven 50 miles from Belfast to escape that.”

There was a brief update on the current state of the two wind farms to highlight that the Banagher Wind Farm refusal was being appealed by RES Renewables and that the Benbradagh Wind Farm was still at the consultation stage.

A map was shown of the initial 12 wind turbines that ABO wanted to put on Benbradagh but it was confirmed that this has been scaled back to four wind turbines.

A participant in the audience stated: “We don’t want any turbines up on Benbradagh, the scale back to four is only to get a foot in the door and planners won’t have any authority after that, sure look at how they are now appealing Banagher, no doubt that will go ahead, it’s a sorry state of affairs for Dungiven and the community needs to get behind in protecting this area. We need protection for our Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and our loved landmark Benbradagh”.

The Save Benbradagh group thanked the audience for their time and asked them to leave details if they wish to get further involved.

If you wish to get more involved please find the group on Facebook ‘Save Benbradagh’ or email savebenbradagh@gmail.com