Tuesday, 29 November 2022
MEMBER for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall has today called on the NSW Department of Planning to extend the public exhibition period for the proposed Winterborne Windfarm near Walcha, the largest windfarm project ever put forward for the region.
Mr Marshall has formally requested the Environment Impact Statement (EIS) for Winterborne be kept on public exhibition for another month, until 15 January 2023, to allow the Walcha community to properly respond to the Department with submissions.
“This is the largest wind farm proposal our region has seen yet and the community is only being given one month to digest the EIS and prepare submissions in response – it simply isn’t enough time.
“The EIS document is large and detailed, with 23 separate attachments, all tolled around 1,000 pages which has to be read, understood and responded to.
“The windfarm proponent has had years to compile its EIS but to expect the community to deal with it properly within a month, is nonsensical.
“Giving the community an extra month is not too much to ask, but it will allow locals to respond with better quality submissions and give the Department a much better sense of local views, questions and concerns, which is the purpose of the public exhibition period and sure what the Department wants to see.”
The Winterborne Windfarm proposes to construct up to 119 turbines of a blade tip height of 230 metres near Walcha.
Mr Marshall has asked the Minister for Planning to require the Department to extend the exhibition period.
As it stands, the community has until 15 December to respond to the Winterborne Windfarm EIS.