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Conservation area is nearly destroyed
By Gary McLaughlin
Residents in Blackrock were left in disarray as a special area of conservation (SAC) was nearly destroyed.
Only for the intervention of one resident, Brian Hopper, the area would have been 'wrecked' by employees of Bord Gis.
Brian said: “For some reason, members of Bord Gais decided to enter the site, which is a special area of conservation. Nobody is allowed to enter this site without permission and they did not have it.”
The incident happened on a Friday evening. “I noticed the workers had entered the site and I told them about the area and the legalities but they did not stop.”
Following this, Brian had to contact the National Park and Wildlife Service as they are the authority on SAC areas.
“Somehow I got through to the district head who was able to stop all the work on the site. I thought because it was Friday, it might have been too late to contact the department head as they started the work well after 4pm. But they are were able to stop the development and thankfully so, because without them, the SAC would have been dead and buried.
“By Saturday, they were told that all work had to be ceased and if they wanted to carry on they would have to gain ministerial consent and conduct an environmental study.
“These are very stringent laws and they just tried to bypass them and it could have got them in big trouble with the National Park and Wildlife Service or the Environmental Protection Agency.”
Catherine O'Sullivan of Bord Gis insisted that the company did not know that the site was an SAC zone.
She said: “We were trying to bring a gas service to houses around the area. We meet with Louth County Council on October 15 and discussed putting the pipes under the road, but as that road was recently resurfaced, it was a no go.
“We then tried to go up through the back of this site, not knowing it was a Special Area of Conservation. We were met by an official who told us we had to stop work so we did. We are now applying for a licence from the council and are awaiting news on how we can proceed.”
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Weather for Dundalk
Thursday 17 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 7 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South east
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