Farmers, hillwalkers and other environmentalists have stepped up their campaign to force RTE to remove a fence it erected around its transmitter on Mount Leinster.
A new alliance to fight the decision to erect the two-metre fence was formed at a meeting in Rathanna Hall, at the foot of the mountain, on Monday evening.
In a separate development, Carlow County Council has again written to RTE requesting that it submit a planning application to retain the fence, which has made the top of the mountain inaccessible to recreational users.
The station said in September it did not require planning permission as it had reduced the height of the fence to two metres.
In a letter to RTE last week, however, the council secretary, Mr Jim Kearney, said the exemption did not apply in cases where the land had been habitually open to the public for the previous 10 years.
A spokeswoman for the station said yesterday it was in ongoing discussions with the council and did not want to comment further on the planning issue. "The fence was put up for reasons of safety and security," she said. "We're not doing this to be killjoys or to prevent anyone from enjoying the mountain, but we don't want someone to be injured and we don't want the mast to be vandalised or damaged."
About 50 people attended Monday's meeting, organised by the Tullow Mountaineering Club, including Mr Roger Garland of the Keep Ireland Open campaign, Mr Eamon Moore of An Taisce and the Green Party's environment spokeswoman, local councillor Ms Mary White.
Ms White said a "strong, well-motivated alliance" of concerned groups, including the Tullow Mountaineering Club, the Friends of Mount Leinster, and sheep farmers who have commonage rights on the mountain, was being organised to fight the campaign.
Ms Bernie Bolger, the mountaineering club's environmental officer, claimed the fence was an ugly structure which had made the summit of Mount Leinster inaccessible to walkers.
Opponents of the fence are to meet again on December 19th. In the meantime discussions may take place with RTE, which has offered to meet them.