Supreme Court quashes appeal against Offaly solar farm

The Supreme Court has quashed an appeal taken by a resident’s group against the decision by An Bord Pleanála to grant planning permission for a 90ha solar farm in Offaly.

The Concerned Residents of Treascon and Clondoolusk sought to challenge the legality of a decision in October 2021 by the planning authority to grant Elgin Energy Services Limited permission to construct and operate a photovoltaic solar farm in the county.

Offaly County Council had granted permission for the proposed development in May 2021 and this was appealed by the resident’s group to An Bord Pleanála.

The group claimed that the solar farm in question would involve re-contouring of an area in excess of 5ha and that the area of land to be restructured by the removal of hedgerows exceeding 50ha should be subject to a mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

‘Misconceived’

In a judgement issued this Thursday on behalf of five judges, Mr Justice Brian Murray said that this contention was “misconceived”.

“The fact that hedgerows were to be removed did not trigger the obligation to have an EIA in respect of the entire solar farm development. What is to be assessed is the whole project identified in the appendices to the [EIA] Directive, and that meant the removal of the hedgerows,” he said.

Solar farms are not referred to in either Annex I or II of the directive, he said.

Concluding, he said the appeal should be dismissed on all counts and stated that the issues raised by the group were either “misconceived” or “premature."