Pylon plan may face court appeal

Seamus Enright

The North East Pylon Pressure Campaign (NEPPC) has been granted leave to appeal a High Court decision, turning down their legal challenge to the planned 138km north-south electricity interconnector.
Last August, Mr Justice Barrett rejected a challenge to An Bord Pleanála’s granting of permission, brought by NEPPC.
The local campaign group then sought to appeal that decision. However Justice Max Barrett stated that no substantial grounds of appeal had been raised. This ruling was overturned last week, leaving the path open to NEPPC to now take their challenge to the highest court in the land.
It could see the overall process to develop a 400kV overhead line linking substations in Woodland, Co Meath, through counties Cavan and Monaghan, with a planned substation in Turleenan, Co Tyrone further delayed by up to two years.
The “significant” decision was welcomed by Padraig O’Reilly of NEPPC, who told The Anglo-Celt: “The Supreme Court have granted us leave to appeal that High Court decision. If we push it further the Supreme Court will hear our appeal. It’s a step higher than the High Court, we asked them to have a look at the decision made and they’ve agreed to do that.”
In the same week, NEPPC’s equivalent in north of the Border, Safe Electricity for Armagh and Tyrone (SEAT) secured their own legal victory after being granted a judicial review on two counts.
One concerns the decision that Interconnector plans in  the North were approved by a civil servant, and not signed off by a Minister as required.
It follows a similar appeal based on the same argument in connection with permission granted to a major £240 million waste incinerator project on the outskirts of Belfast. It was upheld that senior officials do not have legal powers to give the green light for the waste disposal facility at Hightown Quarry in Mallusk following the collapse of devolution.
In the case of the northern section of Eirgrid’s Interconnector project, the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) granted planning approval in January.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil Senator, and future general election hopeful Robbie Gallagher has called on Minister for Communications Denis Naughten to halt all procurement related activities in relation to the proposed Interconnector until the pending the Supreme Court appeal and Court of Appeal decision in Northern Ireland are finalised.
He described the feeling to An Bord Pleanála's decision in 2016 as a “tsunami of disappointment, anger and frustration” for the people affected. 
Sen Gallagher said: “If Eirgrid thought that was the end of the matter and people would take this decision lying down, it was very much mistaken. Two years on, the determination of the people affected is as strong as it has ever been. I have attended a number of meetings throughout the Cavan-Monaghan area and have witnessed at first hand that resolve.”