Cr Jennings last month called on his colleagues to confirm their support for the Racial Discrimination Act as the federal government proposed changes to the legislation.

And tonight he will call on them to declare the Bathurst region a “CSG free zone” in a bid to block any local coal seam gas mining licences.

In his notice of motion, Cr Jennings asks council to “recognise there are various unacceptable risks and uncertainty associated with any possible CSG mining”.

He also wants to see council write to the Central NSW Region of Councils board asking it to make the whole CENTROC region CSG free.

The move comes as the NSW Govern-ment continues its consideration of CSG exploration licence PSPAPP60, lodged in November 2012. The licence, if granted, would allow CSG mining across more than half of the Bathurst region and several other CENTROC areas.

“Any potential benefits from CSG mining are known to be minimal, particularly because local employment creation from constructing and operating CSG wells is minimal, and any potential profits generated will most likely be exported out of the Bathurst Regional Council region,” the notice of motion states.

“Given the geology of the Bathurst Regional Council region, it is unlikely that any significant CSG reserves are present, and therefore the large number of risks and community uncertainty associated with the current PSPAPP60 application create an unacceptably high number of disbenefits versus only minimal benefits to the Bathurst community.”

The move towards a CSG free area has already won the support of Bathurst’s peak environment group, the Bathurst Community Climate Action Network (BCCAN).

BCCAN president Tracey Carpenter yesterday said councillors should represent the community’s concerns over the extraction of coal seam gas.

She said farmers and environmentalists were united in their opposition to further expansion of the potentially toxic and damaging processes used in CSG extraction. 

“CSG extraction involves a labyrinth of individual wells across the landscape,” Ms Carpenter said.

“NSW Farmers have also taken a strong stance on mining and gas, adopting a new resources policy to ban extractive industries in areas covered by Water Sharing Plans until nil negative impact can be demonstrated.”

She said the decision on these applications lies with the NSW Government, “but council still has an important role to play in defending the interests of this community”.