A LOCAL gravel supplies company’s efforts to make changes to a development application for a quarry at Napoleon Reef will be put to the test tomorrow night.
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Bathurst Regional Council will host a second discussion forum in its chambers on the matter before its senior town planners make a recommendation on whether the quarry will be allowed to proceed.
A number of concerns have been addressed by Hothams Sand, Soil and Gravel Supplies in resubmitting its plans for the quarry, from which it wants to extract up to a maximum of 30,000 cubic metres of hard rock materials.
It has submitted reports running to hundreds of pages.
It has dealt with concerns previously raised regarding the quarry, including noise, traffic and road safety, dust, amenity, zoning and rating categories, visual impact, biodiversity, inconsistency with zone objectives, clearing of vegetation, erosion and sediment control, impact on tourism and heritage, accuracy and adequacy of ecological assessment and property values.
According to a report to council’s policy committee meeting, the actual quarry area will be 230 metres by 80 metres, to a maximum depth of 10 metres.
To gain consent, Hothams has agreed to give up blasting at the site. Instead, all material will be extracted using bulldozers and excavators.
An area of six hectares within the 145-hectare site off Napoleon Reef Road will be set aside as a “biodiversity offset”, while trucks with a maximum carrying capacity of 33 tonnes will operate. There will be an average of four return movements per day.
At this stage, council has received 40 submissions relating to the new DA. This follows the 70 original submissions as a result of the two re-notification periods.
Phill Hotham from Hothams Sand, Soil and Gravel Supplies said the company had gone out of its way to accommodate any impacts on people who live in the vicinity.
“We have made significant changes to the DA, addressing many issues,” he said yesterday. “We are hopeful and confident these changes will convince council to approve the quarry.
“In effect, it really is only a small scale quarry, which we believe will have a minimal impact on the environment.”
According to council’s report, there is also additional documentation, principally relating to Aboriginal heritage, tree removal and the proposed biodiversity offset.
RESIDENTS from Napoleon Reef, Walang and Glanmire have met to gather support for their campaign against a proposed quarry in their area.
They gathered at the Glanmire Fire Shed on Sunday to discuss the proposal by Hothams Sand, Soil and Gravel.
Feelings in their community have been running high since a development application was lodged for the quarry in April this year.
“We came here for a tree change, not a quarry change,” one resident said at the meeting. “How dare the council even consider allowing a quarry next to a housing estate.”
No Quarry Action Group co-ordinator Brian Bailey said residents were perplexed as to why council seemed to be ignoring the 320 people who live adjacent to the proposed mine.
“What is going on in our democracy?” he said. “We believe personal letters to senior council staff and councillors are largely being ignored. Residents are saying very few of their letters to council are even being acknowledged.”
Another resident, Jan Page, whose family has lived in the area for more than 130 years, said they faced having “33 tonne trucks and trailers on our narrow, twisting roads mingling with the school buses and family vehicles”.
The meeting of residents unanimously vowed to fight the proposal by developers to the very end.