Wind farm plans criticised

WESTMEATH Councillor Sorca Clarke (Sinn Féin) has launched a scathing attack on the ongoing efforts by Element Power to erect an industrial wind farm on cutaway bog in Coole.

The Mullingar-based councillor was speaking at her party's Ard Fheis at the weekend, in favour of a motion that would prevent industrial wind turbines from being located close to people’s homes.

Motion 75, which was tabled by the Barnes McCormack cumann in Mullingar, supported a Sinn Féin Bill tabled in the Dáil by Brian Stanley TD which seeks to impose a minimum 1-10 set-back distance of turbines from occupied dwellings.

Cllr Clarke said: “I welcome the support for the motion from Ard Fheis delegates which reaffirms Sinn Féin’s opposition to giant size wind turbines that in the case of what is planned for North Westmeath would exceed a height of 175 metres.”

She added: “If permitted, some of these turbines will be sited within 800 metres of homes whose occupants will be forced to endure the affects of noise pollution and shadow flicker.”

Cllr Clarke told the Ard Fheis: “Sinn Féin will continue to stand by local people to ensure that their health and well-being is not compromised by steel monstrosities that if allowed will soar to a height of nearly 60 storeys and blight our landscape for decades to come.”