The SAFE group was started in April 2007 by concerned residents living in close proximity to the proposed 35 mile (56km) long 220kv Power line from Flagford Carrick on Shannon to Srananagh/Ballysumaghan (near Sooey) Co Sligo. ESB proposed this line in 2000 and Planning Permission was first granted in October 2001by Roscommon Leitrim and Sligo Co Councils, it was upheld on appeal to An Bord Pleanala in October 2002. The proposed pylons will be on average 120ft high carrying 5 lines. The ESB also require a 200ft (60m) wide corridor to be kept ‘sterile’ along entire length of the line. SAFE is in support of landowners who are refusing entry to ESB/contractors to construct pylons and over head lines and will continue to support landowners in favour of the underground option. Landowners are perfectly within their rights ro refuse access to anyone to their lands and there is no law in Ireland to make anyone sign their name to any document. A landowners signature is vital to ESB so they can have full access to your lands anytime they want. They can also sell on their valuable assets which includes rights to people's lands.
The following issues are of primary concern to SAFE:
1.Health and Safety: People are extremely concerned about their health and safety regarding EMF and its links to cancers particularly leukaemia in children – it is very worrying to find out that Insurance Companies such as FBD have an EMF exclusion clause on their insurance policies. A recent report by the SCENIHR Committee (published May 2007) which was commissioned for the EU has confirmed a possible link between childhood leukaemia and living close to High Voltage overhead Power lines. See the following link for more details: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/documents/20070504_mid_en.pdf and http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/04_scenihr/docs/scenihr_o_007.pdf It is not up to SAFE to prove that High Voltage (HV) overhead lines are a health hazard it is up to up to the ESB to prove to us they are not. ESB will not take responsibility for the health and safety of people living in close proximity to High Voltage Power lines....who therefore is responsible should any ill health effects occur? (could it be the landowners who sign their names and accept compensation?}Remember someone has to be responsible... Rights also come with responibilities..
2. Property Devaluation: Home and Property owners living in close proximity to proposed line are alarmed about the serious devaluation to their properties. Up to 70% would be wiped off the value of a house in close proximity to line. The ESB claim it is fine for homes to be built just 50m from the line. In many instances the actual directly affected landowners (with pylons/power lines on lands) live further away (e.g Dublin and abroad) from proposed line than "indirectly affected" property owners – however the directly affected owners are the only ones to receive compensation. "Indirectly affected" property owners receive nothing – how can this be just and fair? Again who will take responsibiltiy for devaluation to surrounding properties? Could it be the landowner who signs his name and accepts compensation.?
3.Visual Intrusion: Pylons (especially 120ft high) are very unsightly and visually intrusive. They destroy the look of our beautiful environment and surroundings. This proposed route is slicing through magnificent countryside and is very close to the Bricklieve Mountains/Caves of Keash areas of outstanding natural beauty. Wynnes View close to Cloonloo Co Sligo is also an area of wonderful scenery and breathtaking views. It is virtually impossible for anyone to get Planning Permission to build a dwelling house in this area – yet the ESB propose to run a 220kv line on 120 ft high pylons right through it?
4. Lack of Consultation: People whose homes or lands are in close proximity to the proposed lines (but do not have pylons on or wires crossing their lands) were never informed/consulted about the power line. Many young couples who bought /built new houses along proposed route were not aware of any such proposed power line. ESB were contacted in September 2000 to meet with the residents of Grange close to Boyle, they refused to meet a crowd but agreed to meet only a few local concerned residents. Meeting took place in Grange National School in September 2000. ESB personnel -Bernard O Reilly Transmissions Assets Manager, Cathal O Luain Project Manager and Eugene Bergin arrived at the meeting with plans already drawn up and had maps of line with them, where was the consultation there? They only came to tell the group where the line was going. Maps were never supplied, in some cases even the wrong maps were supplied . ESB must according to EU lawand carry out an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) before appying for Planning Permission under the EIA Directive.
What is fundamental purpose of an EIA(Environmental Impact Assessment)? Articles 5 to 10 of the "law" section of the European EIA Directive clearly state that " certain requirements are to be respected with regard to the conduct of an EIA- these requirements include an obligation to consult the public concerned ( Article 6) and to take information (including information derived from public consultation ) into account in the decision making process ( Article 8)
A fundamental purpose of an EIA is to ensure that decisions on environmentally significant projects (such as this one}are adequately informed in terms of information eminating from relevant information sources ( the public concerned represents one of these information sources) and this is expressly recognised by Article 6 (2) of the Impact Assessment Directive.
4 (b) Objections: Thousands of objections were lodged with 3 Co Councils (Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim) prior to planning permission being granted in October 2001 and all objections were ignored by the County Managers. In Roscommon the County Manager refused to answer letters from concerned residents regarding the line – Roscommon Co Council has agreed to abide by rules of Agenda 21 on the one hand, which includes public participation, and on the other hand wont talk to people who are concerned for their Health and Safety. When the case was appealed to An Bord Pleanala(ABP), the ABPs Inspector commented on the EIS put forward by ESB for this project, he stated it was a very poor document (see copy of comment (Appendix A)on Articles page) The board of ABP ruled against their own Inspector and gave the project the go ahead. An Oral Hearing was requested and paid for but was refused without reasonable explantion. Where was the Democracy and Public Participation?.... non existant – this line was going to be pushed through regardless of cost or public opinion.
There are many questions SAFE would like answered:
1. Will the ESB give a written guarantee of people’s Health and Safety with regard to EMF and living close to proposed power line route? If not why not? Why do they refuse to accept all responsibility for any ill health effects associated with overhead power lines?
2. What about the Health and Safety of all the children living very close to proposed line?
3. Who will compensate people for loss of value to their homes and properties? Do the ESB compensate for impact of line on properties and if not why not? ESB are presently compensating landowners for ‘loss of building sites’- what about sites close by line (or sites with homes built on them) which are also badly if not totally devalued but have no pylons/power lines on them?
4. Do the ESB compensate for visual intrusion? Again if not why don’t they?
5. How much has the ESB spent in the past 8 years (not to mention the previous 10 years when they tried 2 other routes) trying to force this line on the communities living along the 35mile proposed route – how many times over could they have buried the line given the amount of money spent to date on compensation, the over head line materials and manpower?
6. What else have ESB in mind when they are trying so hard to force the overhead option through and not looking at any alternatives? Are they also hoping to place radio antennae and mobile phone dishes (to name but a few) on the pylons when they are built? (Pylons once built become a public structure and no further planning permission is required to places dishes or equipment on them)
7. Do the ESB intend to add other lines to these lines in future?
8. What will happen to landowners' properties when ESB is eventually privatised? Will landowners’ sterile corridors get sold off as well? Is this why a landowner’s voluntary signature for a Deed of Easement is so important?
9. What about all the loss of power from generation to final destination? During transmission 6% of power is lost from overhead lines. This power loss would be eliminated by using underground cable such as XLPE (cross linked polyethylene) the extra cost (2 .2 times that of overhead) would be recouped overtime with the saving on power loss plus the fact that 6% less would have to be generated in the first place. Saving on carbon emissions is vital in this day and age in Ireland especially as ESB are the biggest carbon polluters in the country ..with 12.6 millon tonnes carbon dioxide released annually into air by them.
10. How do ESB propose to deal with landowners who refuse them entry and to sign the Deed of Easement? High Court injunctions were taken against landowners in Bantry in Spring 2006 and yet ESB failed to gain access to properties to build 110kv line. Landowners refused to sign Deed of Easement for ESB and line is being buried at present.
11. We are all familiar with the Dept of Communications (responsible for ESB) tv/radio advertisements about ‘the power of one’ (www.powerofone.ie) and the caption ‘what one change will you make?' We now ask the ESB what one change are they prepared to make – given the fact they themselves are by far the biggest carbon producers in Ireland, and a great threat to our beautiful environment, not to mention their constant use of creosote (a highly carcinogenic substance) on wooden poles all over Ireland – this substance is leaking into the ground and reaching our ground waters 24/7 365 days a year – if we are not eating the effects of it in our food then we must be getting it in our drinking water. Surely they cannot do much more to try and endanger our lives and our health – EMF in the air (through HV (high voltage) overhead lines and effects of creosote in the ground/soil. Can this be allowed to continue??
The following facts must be taken into consideration by ESB regarding undergrounding this line:
o EMFs are negligible therefore much safer.
o Underground route is almost half distance at 20miles
o No wayleaves/Deeds of Easements required.
o No Planning Permission required.
o No delays – ESB have experienced 17 years delay so far with this line.
o No environmental destruction.
o No need for 60m wide sterile corridors.
o Much less power losses after generation.
o N4 is a much better surface to work on – rather than running underground cables through landowners fields. ESB has claimed it is very difficult to run cables underneath farmlands and to locate faults – this makes N4 national primary route even more attractive to them to work on. ESB have already installed 220kv underground cables in Dublin City eg from Carrickmines to Shellybank - here the ESB successfully managed to bury the cables underground, under the beach (at Sandymount) and under water. A similar feat was achieved by ESB in Cobh, Co Cork in recent years where a High Voltage line was also placed underground and under water. ESB have also undergrounded HV lines in Bantry in Cork in 2007.