Offaly Wind Farm is not compliant with its planning conditions, claims CEPA

CEPA, the Communities & Environmental Protection Alliance, has written a letter to Offaly County Council claiming that Cloghan Wind Farm (Stonestown) is not in compliance with its planning conditions.
In the letter, which was signed by five people “acting on behalf of CEPA and the affected residents in Stonestown," the group complained they had only received “brief one-line acknowledgements” from the Council in response to a letter sent 12 weeks before. CEPA said this level of response “reflects the same experience reported by wind farm neighbours who have been raising noise complaints since the commissioning of Cloghan Wind Farm.”
CEPA said it recently engaged an independent acoustician to carry out noise monitoring at Stonestown.
They claimed that the acoustician's findings “confirm that Cloghan Wind Farm is not compliant with its planning conditions. It is our opinion that the report also confirms the inappropriateness of using the LA90 metric for assessing wind turbine noise, given its variable and modulating nature. As we know, the human ear perceives actual noise levels (Leq), not filtered averages — our ears cannot “average out” the louder fluctuations in turbine noise. Tonal noise and impulsive tones confirm the stress the turbine noise is causing its neighbours.”
CEPA claim that Offaly County Council had previously been at a similar juncture, when in February 2022, the Council issued an “enforcement warning letter to Statkraft in relation to Meenwaun Wind Farm near Banagher. However, Meenwaun continues to operate unabated.”
CEPA's letter also reminded the Council of the Code of Practice for Wind Energy Development in Ireland (December 2016), which states: “The promoter shall submit an annual report to the local authority of all communications and information provided, queries received, responses to same and recording if these are ongoing or resolved, which will be published on a dedicated register available online.
A Local Authority will take into consideration their performance of these obligations when deciding on new applications by the promoter elsewhere in the county or on repowering applications.”
CEPA added that the Offaly County Development Plan includes the following Development Management Standard for wind energy: “Impact on human health in relation to noise disturbance (including consistency with the World Health Organisation’s 2018 Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region), shadow flicker and air quality.”
CEPA added that, “given the seriousness of the impact this noise is having on the community,” they wanted to know if the County Council had engaged with the HSE regarding these ongoing health-related complaints?
“If not, what health expertise does Offaly County Council staff have, to justify not doing so? Who within Offaly County Council is responsible for the decision not to collaborate with the HSE on a matter with clear implications for public health?”
The group again requested, “in light of these obligations and the growing evidence of persistent non-compliance and community harm”, a meeting with Offaly County Council to discuss wind turbine noise complaints and “the Council’s responsibilities under the Local Government Act and the Environmental Protection Agency Act.”

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