Sir, - In October 1997 the ESB received full planning permission from Cork County Council to construct a high-voltage power line from Aghada through Saleen, East Ferry, Cobh and Passage West to Rafeen.
A campaign of opposition to this overland line has been in existence since June 1996 and is supported by all local TDs, urban councils, industry (through the Cobh and Harbour Chamber of Commerce), farming bodies and local professional and voluntary organisations.
The ESB has an alternative: an underwater crossing, which was deemed by its own consultants to be both a feasible and practical method of providing power to the western side of the harbour. This was rejected on grounds of cost.
But the ESB has not costed: the documented health risks to our families; the devaluation of our homes and properties; the landscape damage that will result from 82 pylons up to 158 feet high and carrying up to seven heavy 220,000-volt cables across 23 kilometers of countryside.
An Bord Pleanala acquiesced to the ESB's request that it adjudicate on the appeal without holding an oral hearing. If this is a democracy, I would ask the Minister and Government to hear the concerns of our community and its elected representatives and force the ESB to justify its choice between the overland route and the option of the underwater cable. - Yours, etc.,
Ballincrusha, Cobh, Co Cork.