An Bórd Pleanála will again have to decide on a planning case for a North Kerry wind farm after the High Court quashed its original order.
The planning body upheld a decision by Kerry County Council to refuse planning for a seven-turbine wind farm on lands near Lixnaw.
Now that the High Court has quashed An Bórd Pleanála’s order, the company Ballynagare Wind Farm Ltd is again taking its case to the national planning body.
Ballynagare Wind Farm Ltd first applied for planning for the seven-turbine wind farm in late 2021.
The turbines would be a maximum height of 170 metres, with a rotor diameter of 150 metres, while the development would also include a meteorological mast 110-metres high, and the upgrade of roads.
The application sought ten-year permission to build the wind farm, which would be operational for 35 years.
In refusing permission for the development back in early 2022, Kerry County Council cited the significant visual impact on the Rattoo church and tower, that the development may negatively impact water quality in the area, and the potential impact on wildlife.
The company then appealed this refusal to An Bórd Pleanála, which upheld the council’s original decision in its order in September 2023.
In that order, the national planning body wrote that this development was outside an area designated for wind farm development in the Kerry County Development Plan.
The High Court has now quashed that order by An Bórd Pleanála from September 2023.
The original refusal by Kerry County Council still stands, but it was the order on the company's subsequent appeal that was quashed.
Ballynagare Wind Farm Ltd has now re-activated its appeal, and An Bórd Pleanála will again have to decide on the planning case.
The planning body has said it will make a decision on this appeal by 12th August.
