Rejected wind farm proposal to be appealed

The decision by Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council to refuse planning permission for a wind farm has been taken to the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC); the appeal is being taken by the developer and the farmer involved. 

The proposal for Renewable Energy Sources’ 6-turbine Magheramore wind farm was turned down by the council’s planning committee on November 22, 2023.

Speaking to the County Derry Post, a spokesperson for the Save Benbradagh campaign group, said the closing date for submissions to the PAC on the issue was January 27, 2025.

“The hearing is scheduled to take place in Belfast on Thursday, February 20, 2025,” she added. 

“All of the previous objections to the wind turbines will still stand but the PAC, which is a judicial body,  will examine the decision from scratch. Basically, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council will have to defend its reasons for refusing planning permission, as will the Historic Environment Division.”

The Department for Communities Historic Environment Division records, protects, conserves and promotes the North’s historic environment.

Dungiven campaign group react angrily to plans to erect more wind turbines on Benbradagh

Developer ERG plans to submit a new planning application for an additional nine turbines on top of the prominent landmark in early 2025

According to the Save Benbradagh spokesperson, the PAC hearing will involve “one or two planners and one or two people from the Historic Environment Division”.

“The developer will turn up with a team of about 13 people, including the top planning barristers in Northern Ireland,” she added.

“They have chosen an ‘Informal Hearing’. This means Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council and Historic Environment will submit their statement of case and the opportunity for rebuttal is an oral delivery, which automatically also favours barristers. 

“The statistics for appeals against councils refusing to grant planning permission for wind farms being successful are very high - about 85%, so we are very much up against it here in Dungiven regarding that particular wind farm application.

“Nevertheless we have been mounting a very determined campaign. We have postered the whole area and over the next fortnight we will be lodging as many new objections as possible."

The well informed spokesperson highlighted what it described as the “bigger issue” at play regarding wind farms.

She said: “Northern Ireland has supposedly missed the boat for offshore wind. It is the only region in Britain and Ireland which does not have offshore wind doing the ‘heavy lifting’ regarding net zero targets. Offshore wind is generally more efficient and generates bigger capacities and quantities. 

“According to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s Renewable Energy and Net Zero in Northern Ireland hearings in Westminster, which took place from January to March 2024, we have missed targets because of the “Stormont vacuums”.

“Essentially, that means, we are doubling our onshore wind to meet all of our 2030 Net Zero targets. That has massive implications for our landscape here in County Derry.

“Northern Ireland currently has double the amount of generation of onshore wind than the Republic of Ireland. In addition, all of the wind turbines are located in the three North West Council areas: Derry City and Strabane District Council; Fermanagh and Omagh District Council; and Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council."

Save Benbradagh has grave concerns that Renewable NI - the private developer lobby group - is with SONI  (NI’s electricity Transmission System Operator) and the Department for  the Economy to try to deliver 2030 targets purely on onshore wind.

“All of the turbines are going to be in these three council areas. There is nothing in any other council area.”

The Save Benbradagh campaign is also fighting against a proposal to site a wind farm on top of Banagher. Our wee area alone has actually got more live wind farm applications than anywhere else. We are just going to be surrounded by them. 

“We have already got the biggest wind farm in the North at Altahullion in Glenconway, with 50 turbines. 

“The problem is, at the time people thought, ‘Yes, we will play our part. Everybody has to play a part in this,’ however, now it seems like we are playing the part of everybody.

Developers are now arguing the area is already ‘spoiled’ by wind turbines so they are going to add more,” said the spokesperson.

The Save Benbradagh campaign is determined to do all it can to protect the two local beauty spots of Banagher and Benbradagh.

“The least we can do is to try and look after our scenic areas and also our nature areas. 

“We have red squirrels and everything in Banagher and I heard the first woodpecker last summer. If we don’t protect them, who else is going to do it?

“There were more than 400 objections lodged against the Banagher wind farm proposal. What people have got to understand is, it is not just Banagher which will be affected, the little hill on which they are proposing to site the turbines is the backdrop to the whole of dungiven. One of the reasons for the council’s refusal was it ‘sat oppressively over the settlement of Dungiven’.

“This is an area of outstanding natural beauty. Everybody that paints, paints Benbradagh. There are poems about it. There are songs about it. It is just part of our community. The Dungiven people see Benbradagh as basically theirs, even if the farmers own it.

“It and Banagher are part of our history. Local people and visitors walk there all the time. They bring tourism into our town. If we take that away, the whole tourist industry will be ruined. 

“If this whole area is surrounded by wind turbines, no tourists will want to visit or stay in the area. We will end up with a disparaging nickname as some sort of windy hill.”