Planners give ESB more time but negotiations still at standstill

Offaly planners have decided to extend planning permission until 2015 in order to allow for the completion of a 110kv ESB line from Edenderry to Tullamore. Work on the new line halted last September, when Clonmore woman Teresa Treacy went to prison for 20 days for contempt of court after disobeying a High Court order to allow ESB workers onto her land. Permission for the project expired on March 22, but a decision reached by Offaly planners last Tuesday gives three more years for the plan to reach completion. Currently 159 of 179 double wood polesets have been erected along with 18 of 20 steel lattice masts. A letter submitted to Offaly County Council from Eirgrid dated January 31 as part of the planning extention application requested a new 2015 deadline for completion of the project "due to circumstances beyond our control which has seriously hindered construction progress on this development". The same letter added that once issues of land access has been resolved the intention is to complete the permitted works. Getting planning permission for the 31km 110kv line was a lengthy process for Eirgrid from the start. Initially proposed in 2006, conditional permission from Offaly County Council was appealed to An Bord Pleanala late the same year. A decision to grant planning permission was reached by An Bord Pleanala in March 2007, paving the way for work to be carried out on the new line from Cushaling station beside Edenderry Power generating station in Ballykilleen townland to Thornsberry station in the Tullamore townland of Derrynagall/Ballydaly. Carrying out the remainder of the work on the project will reportly take just weeks, but ESB's Brian Montayne admitted this week no further progress has been made in negotiations between the company and landowner Ms Treacy.