An appeal taken by a renewables developer to overturn Westmeath County Council’s decision to refuse permission for a 214-acre solar farm near Mullingar has been unsuccessful.

Neoen Renewables Ireland Ltd's application to build a solar farm in Gartlandstown and Crookedwood, Co Westmeath, was initially refused last August.

Among the reasons for refusal were, the council stated, that the proposed solar farm was located within a scenic and culturally sensitive undulating and rolling landscape and is partially located within a designated high amenity area.

If granted, the solar farm would be “seriously injurious to the visual amenities of the area,” it said.

The planning application received close to 80 submissions, many of which were objections from locals.

'Open season'

Among those who submitted reservations about the project was Labour Councillor Denis Leonard.

In his letter, he wrote: “Why do our solar farms need to be so big and not take account of high amenity areas, landscape, tourism, archaeology, access to amenities like our lakes, and the need to preserve quality agricultural lands?" he said.

"Let’s build the right development in the right place and designate lands appropriately, rather than letting it be open season for any developer to come into the county and build what they want, where they want. We saw how well that worked with housing in the noughties,” Cllr Leonard continued.

“We must get real about greenwashing our way into an unsustainable amount of planning mistakes that cannot be undone,” he said.

Appeal

Neoen Renewables Ireland Ltd appealed Westmeath County Council’s decision to refuse planning to An Bord Pleanála.

However, the Bord concluded that the information submitted by the developer was insufficient to determine if the solar farm would not have a significant negative impact on water quality in the area, which in turn may cause potential adverse impacts on biodiversity, and upheld the decision to refuse.