Community consultation: letter to Blackthorn Solar Farm

2 October 2026

Note: Sent via email to info@blackthorn-solar.ie

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: Galway County Council Planning Application Reference 2661567

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves as the Lackagh Knockdoe Solar Action Group.

We write in connection with the above application, submitted to Galway County Council on 16 September 2026.

The sequence of events

On 31 August 2026, an information leaflet was delivered to properties in the area. Residents within close proximity of the proposed development did not receive the leaflet, including households on the Cahernashilleeny road, immediately adjoining Land Parcel 2.

On 9 September 2026, a public information event was held at Turloughmore GAA Club with minimal attendance due to lack of advertisement and subsequent lack of event & application as a whole, concluding at 8pm. Attendees were informed that the application would be submitted at the end of September or in October.

Only 35 hours after the public information event, by the morning of 11 September 2026, statutory site notices had been erected.

Only 7 days after the public information event, the application was received by the planning authority on 16 September 2026.

What the application documents show about that sequence

The drainage details and swept path analysis accompanying the application were issued for planning on 4 September 2026, five days before the public information event of 9 September. The site layout drawings are dated September 2026 without a day, and the Site Location Map – Landownership is dated 14 September 2026.

Appendix 5 of the Planning and Environmental Statement records that residents at the event of 9 September requested photomontages from private dwellings and from first-floor windows, cross sections from individual properties, and clarification on the treatment of two-storey dwellings in the Glint and Glare Assessment. The Natura Impact Statement, Ecological Impact Assessment, Flood Risk Assessment, Archaeological Impact Assessment and Construction Traffic Management Plan were each finalised between 11 and 15 September 2026, after those requests were made. The application as lodged contains none of the material requested.

The scale of what is proposed

The application comprises approximately 93 hectares of solar arrays, 18 transformer stations, two site entrances, underground cabling within the R354 public road, and a stated operational life of 40 years, with a 10-year permission sought. It is accompanied by approximately 140 documents, including a 204-page Natura Impact Statement, a 304-page Ecological Impact Assessment, a 184-page Surface Water Management Plan and a Glint and Glare Assessment running to several hundred pages across its appendices, totalling over 2,000 pages across the application for a contractual existence of almost a half century.

Members of the public have 35 days in which to read that material and respond.

The request

A development of this scale and duration warrants consultation capable of influencing what is submitted. What took place could not have done so, because the drawings were already issued for planning before the event was held.

We therefore ask, due to the evident lack of public consultation prior to the submission of the application, we request that Blackthorn Ltd re-consider the validity of the application. Furthermore, we request that the information previously requested by residents on 9 September 2026 be made available. We also request a copy of the feedback that Blackthorn received at the consultation evening held on 9th September.

We request a full written response.

Regards,

The Executive Committee

Lackagh Knockdoe Solar Action Group

Grúpa Gníomhaíochta Gréine Leacach Cnoc Tua