At a meeting in March, council resolved to request the Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, and AGL that the Broke Fordwich winegrowing region be excised from the petroleum exploration leases held by AGL, and that no further activities be undertaken on the two wells adjacent to the village of Broke until a full environmental assessment is undertaken on the wells.

Council received correspondence from AGL in relation to these matters at the end of last month, declining both of council’s requests.

A letter from land and approvals manager for AGL, Siobhan Barry, states that AGL does not support the excision of any part of the lease that it holds.

“Until exploration and appraisal work is completed to determine whether the gas is recoverable and commercially viable, it would be imprudent to excise any part of such a valuable and significant resource,” Ms Barry said.

Ms Barry said that AGL would not be carrying out an environmental assessment on its test wells, as it had completed one in 2004, and is not required by the State Government to carry out another.

As a result of the correspondence, Singleton Council has resolved to write a letter to AGL expressing its disappointment with the response to the issues council had raised.

Cr Alison Howlett said she didn’t feel that council’s requests were unreasonable, as all that had been asked was an area of 21 square kilometres be excluded from a lease of 17,000 square kilometres.

“AGL can do this off its own bat but has chosen not to,” Cr Howlett said.

“It’s disappointing that our concerns over one of the few tourism areas in Singleton have had no impact on AGL.

“I think Singleton has done enough in regard to mining activity to deserve to have a small area protected and insulated from this activity.”