A PLAN to erect electricity pylons at Cork Harbour, radically changing the skyline, is being fiercely opposed by the local community.
Cork Harbour is a beautiful place, one of the greatest natural harbours in this part of the world. To the seaward side it has welcoming channels and safe berths. In many ways, it dominates the life of Cork city.
People who live around the harbour like their environment. They do not want it to change. But it may.
Firstly, the argument is about a natural beauty spot being interfered with. Secondly, it is about the right of a community to benefit from the natural appreciation of the land in its ownership.
Cork County Council and the ESB take a different view. On the ESB planning permission to erect 75 pylons in an arc running from Aghada, north to Saleen, and westwards through East Ferry, Cobh and Passage West, before turning south to Rafeen, near Ringaskiddy. The giant pylons will dominate the skyline and change it beyond recognition. The proposal is now under appeal to An Bord Pleanala.
The people of the area have made their submissions. A good case has been put but it has failed. Now they have only the appeal left.
The Cork Harbour Anti Pylon Group - formed to fight the proposal - claims the council has granted planning permission without hearing all the arguments.
It alleges the council came to its conclusion without taking into account the different possibilities for the upgrading of the ESB's power supply in the harbour area. Particularly, in its view, an option that could have met the needs of both sides has not been given the attention it deserves. This is the suggestion that, instead of running unsightly pylons over ground, the ESB would lay its high tension cables under water.
The Cork Harbour residents are also concerned that the high tension cables are a health risk.
Residents also fear the plan would reduce property values. They claim the 900 acres affected by the ESB's plan would fetch £20,000 an acre on the open market. Take that value away, and the development value of the land could be reduced by as much as £18 million.
In its last accounts, the ESB returned an operating profit of £83.6 million, even if the 1995 annual report showed a deficit of £284.1 million. This had more to do with restructuring and exceptional provisions for that year than with the health of the company. What the people of Cork Harbour want to know is why a huge company cannot accommodate local wishes. The answer is best operating practice and, simply, money.
Consultants who have looked at the possibility of underwater cables have determined that security of the lines would be an issue. Also, there is the question of cost. Figures available to the ESB show that underwater cables would entail an additional expenditure of £21 million - just for laying the cables whereas the overland option, including roads infrastructure, would come out at £9 million.
The company must also consider the underwater environment. If the riverbed were dredged to facilitate the cables, would marine life be affected? What would be the long term outcome for marine life as maintenance of the cables continued down the years?
Cork Harbour, though a beauty spot, is already heavily industrialised, for example, Little Island and Ringaskiddy industrial estates, the steel plant, and Whitegate refinery.
If you are going to have industry, especially the type that needs to operate from a harbour then there must be sufficient power to supply it. As far as the ESB is concerned, the rapid development of the harbour in recent years has led to an annual 6 per cent increase in demand for power. Unless something is done Cork will not have sufficient power to meet its future needs.
The ESB had no choice but to react to a situation in which it would not have been able to service industry. That would have had other implications for the people of the harbour and its surrounds, it argues.
The company concedes that the pylons - rising more than 40 metres in the air - will alter the view. But it says that its consultants were charged with finding the least damaging route for the pylons and that this has been achieved. Mr Eamonn Cantwell, the ESB's manager of transmission assets, said: "We have to do it and we will do it in the most environmentally friendly way. That's our objective and that's what will happen, assuming that we are given the go ahead by An Bord Pleanala. I don't believe that farming in the harbour will be affected. My view is that it will go on as normal just as it has wherever we have had to put in other pylons. After all, there are already pylons in the harbour."
The ESB says that, having taken advice from its consultants it is satisfied that the proposed overland route for the new 220kv line is the best one and the most practical way of coping with the increased demand for electricity in Cork, which is well above the national average.
It adds that since the initial submission for planning permission, there have been ongoing discussions with the planning authority, individual landowners, and the Irish Farmers' Association. Where technically "and economically feasible," it stresses, adjustments in the route were agreed after meetings residents in the locality.
Mr Brendan Devlin, the Cork county engineer, has rejected claims that the local authority came to its initial decision to approve planning permission without knowing all the facts. The residents believe that not enough attention was paid to the under water option and that the health risks have not been addressed adequately.
Mr Devlin denies this. A London firm of microwave consultants has given the all clear to the project and its report has been published. Also, the council asked the ESB to consider fully the question of running the cables under the harbour instead of over it.
"The ESB did so, and a consultant's report concluded that there would be a danger of the cables being fouled if this option were followed. I think the point is that we did look carefully at the alternatives, and at the end of the day we had to make a decision. Now it's in the hands of An Bord Pleanala."
The anti pylon group claims backing from some 1,500 people. The proposed line, it says, will be equivalent to, but uglier than, a 14 mile long factory. And finally, it makes this observation: "The proposed line, if erected, will only meet the growing energy needs of Ringaskiddy and west Cork for a short time. If IDA plans for investment and job targets are met, a further line will be needed within a decade."