ANTI-PYLON CAMPAIGNERS MAKE NON-CO-OPERATION CALL ON LOCAL CONTRACTORS AND LANDOWNERS

In a significant escalation of the campaign of opposition to the overgrounding of the north-south interconnector project, anti-pylon campaigners in Co Monaghan this week issued an appeal for local landowners and contractors to adopt a stance of non-co-operation with EirGrid over the delivery of the controversial electricity transmission development. “Short-term actions can have long term consequences for businesses and landowners who turn their backs on their neighbours in progressing the proposed 400Kv overhead north south interconnector,” the Co Monaghan Anti Pylon Committee said in a statement which we carry in full inside this week’s edition.

A committee spokesperson told the Northern Standard that the CMAPC wanted to tell local contractors who may be willing or planning to engage with EirGrid and ESB Networks in the construction of “the proposed and much despised overhead north south interconnector” that they have a moral responsibility to their communities, and the landowners who formed a significant part of their customer base, not to facilitate or participate in the construction of this unwanted powerline monstrosity in Meath, Cavan, Monaghan, Armagh and Tyrone”. “It would be a very unwise move for local contractors to jeopardise their future local business interests by providing services such as plant or equipment hire, waste disposal, storage and products such as concrete, cement, fencing, stone and steel to EirGrid or ESB Networks who may have earmarked them to provide construction services locally on the proposed…