An Taisce wants farmer to remove fence at Kylemore

A WEST Connemara farmer is so conscious of the fact that his sheep may cause an accident on an increasingly busy road that he erected a fence to keep his animals in.

But An Taisce want him to remove the fence because of its location in an environmentally sensitive location.

The planning watchdog said that the fence would “constitute a visually intrusive and unsympathetic element in the landscape that would detract significantly from the visual amenities.”

Galway County Council granted planning permission for the retention of the sheep fence to Arthur Walsh from Derrylough, Letterfrack. The fence that will keep the sheep off the roads is located in nearby Kylemore.

It involves the provision of 1,850 metres of fencing that was erected manually and the applicant argues that there have been no changes made to the Special Area of Conservation in terms of farm management.

The planning file states that the farmer is in compliance with his current AEOS plan except that the area in question, which has been listed as commonage, is now privately owned.

In April, planning permission was granted for the fence as Mr Walsh said that he had erected it for health and safety reasons as well as animal welfare.

The farmer said that due to the increasing volume of traffic on the road, it was no longer safe to have animals wandering along it.

“I cannot have it on my conscience that a serious or, indee, a fatal accident, would occur and I am sure that the planning officers do not want to carry such for life either,” he said.

Mr Walsh said that Galway County Council should be supporting the fencing of animals of this road for safety reasons and he added that it was also the source of concern for Gardai in the area.

“I am sure that it is not necessary to point out that any incident occurring would not be covered by insurance as insurance is unobtainable on unfenced lands.

“The fence is necessary for my participation in the organic farming scheme for which I have qualified and it is a requirement which the Department of Agriculture supports,” Mr Walsh added.

An Taisce maintain that the fence is located in the Maamturk Mountains Special Area of Conservation and they have an issue with overgrazing in the area. They consider this as “haphazard fencing” that will erode the character and detract from the amenities of the area.

They feel that it would set a precedent for other fencing in the area and a decision on the appeal will be known by early September.