The association chose not to attend the workshop in Singleton on July 1 as it is their belief that the problems in the Hunter Valley caused by the mining industry can only be resolved at a state or federal government level.

“Most of what we want the industry to do is more than at a local level,” member of the BMPA John Krey said.

“After the report on the survey was released, I recommended to the BMPA that we withdraw because a decision locally is not going to make the mines do something.

“At the moment all the mines have their own conditions of consent and as they are all in competition with each other, one is not going to act in the best interests of the community if it is going to impact them.”

Mr Krey said the decision was also based on what they have seen as an unequal representation of participants in the survey.

“The mining companies had a substantial sway on the outcome,” he said.

“The results from the survey are generally good, but I’m not quite sure how anything done in relation to them can be enforced by the minerals council on mining companies.

“If we thought it would achieve something we would be a part of it.”

Mr Krey said a major concern is what happens with the mines after the boom has bust.

“If these companies go broke – which they do – we’re left with great gaping holes in a devastated country side that cannot produce anything,” he said.

“Someone needs to prepare a master plan for when mines pull out as what we’ll have is a massive amount of infrastructure and investigations need to be made about what we can do with it.

“If the industry did it, it would be interesting to see what they think the future of the area will look like and what our options will be.”

The BMPA believes that the problems of the Hunter Valley can only be addressed at a government level with a better approach to environmental controls, monitoring and an improved planning approval process that includes the cumulative impact of mines in the Hunter Valley.