Anti-pylon campaigners in Cork have vowed to continue opposing the ESB's plans to construct a 220KV power line on pylons across Cork Harbour despite just 150 people turning out yesterday for a march to highlight opposition to the plan.
Cork Harbour Anti-Pylon Residents Association (CARA) spokesman, Mr Eddie Mansworth, admitted the group had hoped for a greater turnout in the march through Cork city centre but said they were determined to stop the pylon project proceeding.
"We were hoping for more but it's a work day . . . I'm pleased - what we've seen here are families who have consistently opposed the ESB's plans to construct these pylons - families who are very determined," Mr Mansworth said.
"When the ESB make a start, they will get a very definite response - that will take the form of civil disobedience, lying in front of machinery, going to jail - whatever it takes to get the ESB to reverse this undemocratic decision."
"We will protest at any site or outlet working on the project and closing them down through people power - the ESB won't be able to stand even one pylon and they need 84 pylons - they will have 84 individual battles and are wasting their time."
Protesters chanting slogans such as "No More Pylons", and "We don't like the ESB, put the cable in the sea" marched through Patrick Street and the South Mall yesterday afternoon to hand in a letter of protest at the ESB's offices in Academy St.
CARA spokesman Mr Pat Gill said yesterday's protest was aimed at voicing their concerns as customers of the ESB. "We're coming here as customers of the ESB and saying to them that we are dissatisfied people," he said.
"We're telling them that this proposed option which their management wants to impose on our communities is unacceptable and we're asking customer services to intercede on our behalf within their own organisation." Mr Gill told protesters that the ESB had an alternative to constructing pylons from Aghada in east Cork to Raffeen on the other side of Cork Harbour and that was to put the cable underwater.
"What we're saying to the ESB loud and clear is you have an alternative - going underwater, so use it . . ."
However, the ESB Transmission Manager, Mr Bernard O'Reilly, reiterated the company's view that running a cable underwater across Cork Harbour wasn't an option given the volume of shipping traffic in the harbour.
"There are over 4,000 ship movements along there every year; these are big ships of 90,000 tonnes or more with large anchors traversing a narrow corridor often in Gale Force 9 winds," Mr O'Reilly said.
The march is the most recent in a series of protests against the ESB plans which were given the go-ahead earlier this summer when the company won a High Court case against Cork County Council for rescinding planning permission.
The council had granted planning permission to the ESB for the pylon project in February 1997 but councillors rescinded the permission in March 1999 by 31 votes to four following a concerted campaign by anti-pylon protesters.
