Wicklow Sinn Féin County Councillor John Brady has welcomed the decision to extend the Eirgrid public consultation period for the Grid Link Project until Tuesday, 7th January 2014 at 5pm.
Speaking after the decision to extend the deadline Councillor Brady said “The Grid Link Project is causing huge concern in a number of Counties including Wicklow. The €500 million Grid Link Project is the proposed new overhead power line linking the electricity transmission networks in Leinster and Munster. The Stage 1 Report for the project has identified a number of route corridor options for the proposed overhead power line. There is however huge concern and opposition in South West Wicklow as the D1 and D2 routes pass through the County adjacent to Carnew, Shillelagh and Baltinglass”.
The Sinn Féin Councillor continued “There has been a huge level of objection to the over grounding of the cables and communities have mobilised and submitted thousands of objections. The consultation process was due to end on November 26th; however the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications had asked Eirgrid to extend this consultation to the 31st December. EirGrid has agreed and will continue the consultation period until the 7th January 2014 to cater for the Christmas period”.
Brady continued “I have submitted my objection to the pylons and the over grounding of the 400kv cables through the beautiful countryside of South West Wicklow. I also don’t want it imposed on any neighbouring Counties. International best practice is to underground cables of this magnitude and The Irish Government needs to make a commitment to follow suit”.
Brady concluded “I welcome the fact that the consultation period has been extended until 7th January, however I hope it is not a cynical ploy to delay the decision making process until after the local elections which take place in May 2014. I strongly urge anyone that hasn’t made a submission to do so before the new deadline”.
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