Tamworth council backs Greens move to continue fight against contested wind project

The battle for the controversial Hills of Gold wind project continues, with the Tamworth Regional Council this week voting to support a Greens councillor motion to continue its fight against the newly approved project.

Two Hills of Gold motions were on the table on Tuesday night: To write to federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek to plead their case against the proposed wind farm, and to join a court case in the New South Wales (NSW) Land and Environment Court seeking to block it.

But before the first could be put to a vote, loud clapping from one person in support of the motion to write to Plibersek irked Tamworth mayor Russel Webb so much, he closed the proceeding to all members to the public and suspended the meeting for 10 minutes as people were ejected from the room.

The councillors, sans public scrutiny, returned to wave through the motions, despite both council employees and councillors noting that the letter to Plibersek was likely to be futile and court action would also be “tough”.

Engie’s hotly contested The Hills of Gold wind farm, proposed for near Nundle in the New England region of NSW, was cleared for development by the final state planning arbiter in September.

The final design consists of 62 turbines totalling 372MW and with a 100MW battery, after the Independent Planning Commission ruled that turbines originally excluded from state planning approval could be restored. It was seen as an important test case against the use of “phantom dwellings” to stifle a project.

The project now waits only on federal EPBC approval – and a potential court case. 

I object

Tamworth Greens councillor Ryan Brooke is behind the latest missive to Plibersek asking her to intervene due to their concerns of potential environmental and biodiversity impacts from construction.

The council’s objections range from concerns about access roads, land degradation, a lack of social licence, and failures to close deals with landowners who will be affected by the project. 

“This project doesn’t stack up as a council. We have repeatedly made multiple, multiple submissions detailing the project’s inadequacies with respect to sites for the building constraints, the developer’s failure to achieve a social license within the number of communities,” Brooke said during the Tuesday meeting. 

“But relevant to the EPBC assessment, Council has also consistently questioned the constructibility of the project and its impact on surrounding significantly important biodiverse environment.”

The Tamworth Regional Council has already lodged six different objections to the wind farm. 

While acknowledging that a letter to the federal minister is unlikely to have an effect, and that the federal government is supportive of the Hills of Gold project, the councilors still backed sending a jointly signed missive.

The council had also been considering a judicial review of the project, but instead will join the Hills of Gold Preservation Inc court case to try to block it. 

“Obviously it’s going to be tough, given the decision of the IPC, but I believe and I have from the start said that council’s responses and objections were sound, and not only my opinion but it’s the opinion of a number of other people in government departments I’ve spoken with,” said councillor Mark Rodda on the motion to join the legal proceedings.

“Certainly support this and hope that it delivers the outcome the community is asking for and that we need.”