An application by the ESB for an injunction restraining a number of local landowners from interfering with the erection of a 38kv overhead electricity line for a wind farm development near Bantry, Co Cork, was adjourned at the High Court yesterday.
The adjournment was to facilitate the objectors getting legal representation, a solicitor having just come on record for them, the court heard.
The ESB claims it has spent about €800,000 to date because of the delay in the erection of the line. Joe Burke, of Bantry Concerned Action Group, has told the court his members want the line to go underground for safety reasons.
The company is seeking to stop the objectors from preventing the ESB from entering their lands at Dromourneen, near Bantry, to erect the electricity line.
After Tim O'Sullivan, for the ESB, told Mr Justice Frank Clarke yesterday that Greg Casey, solicitor, had now come on record for the defendants, the judge said he would adjourn the matter to next Monday.
Mel Christle SC, for the ESB, told the court the proceedings were against five named defendants - Mary Keane, John Keane, Susan Kingston, John Kingston and Tadgh Coughlan.
An affidavit from the ESB has already been lodged in court and affidavits on behalf of the defendants are expected to be presented before next Monday's sitting.
The ESB contends that Ballybane Windfarms Ltd received planning permission for the building of a wind farm electricity generating station at Glanta Commons and had entered into a formal connection agreement with ESB for the building of a 38kv line which will carry the electricity generated by the wind farm from Glanta Commons to Ballylickey transformer station for connection to the national electricity grid.
The ESB says the length of the 38kv line across the defendants property will be 1,145 metres and consist of seven double wood pole structures and one steel angle mast to carry the three conductor wires.
Planning permission granted by Cork County Council for the line was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by Bantry Concerned Action Group. On January 11th, 2005, the board rejected the appeal and upheld the grant of permission. The ESB says it has a statutory obligation to proceed with the erection of the 38kv electric line at the location concerned and that all landowners will be compensated in full.