A public meeting in Singleton to hear the community’s views on the Wambo United Open Cut Coal Mine and associated modifications was cancelled at the last minute.
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Speakers were only informed two hours before they were expected to be at the Singleton Youth Centre to address the meeting.
Some of the speakers did not receive notice of the cancellation as they were travelling to the meeting and therefore turned up at the venue expecting to deliver their speeches.
So instead of a public meeting a protest was held outside the venue with speakers deriding the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) describing the organisation as a bunch of incompetent amateurs who acted only in the interests of mining companies.
The reason given for the sudden cancellation was Geoff Sharrock, a Commissioner from the IPC considering the state significant development application, this morning advised the Chair of the Commission, Professor Mary O’Kane, of a conflict of interest issue and immediately stood down from the case.
He had replaced Professor Alice Clark on the Panel after she resigned due to a separate issue. Due to the significance of the case, the Commission has decided to postpone today’s public meeting until a new Commissioner can be appointed.
Commenting on the cancellation Bulga resident Judith Leslie said now a panelist discovers a "conflict" and then late on the morning that the hearing is to be held Geoff Sharrock reveals his conflict which was obvious to anyone. “It's hard to believe anyone could discover a "conflict" so late in the process,” she said.
Hunter Environment Lobby’s Bev Smiles, who travelled from Wollar only to find the IPC cancelled, said it was a disgrace and she was extremely angry at the IPC’s attitude towards the community.
While the protest was being conducted outside two of the IPC Commissioners and associated staff where inside the venue. They came outside to explain the situation and answer questions saying they too were only informed just before the meeting that it had been cancelled.
The public meeting will be rescheduled for February 2019 to give the community an opportunity to present their views to a reconstituted Panel.
A meeting with Singleton Shire Council today and a site inspection tomorrow have also been postponed.
Lock the Gate NSW spokesperson Georgina Woods said the United Wambo expansion should not be allowed to go ahead because it would further threaten the health of residents in the region.
“People are already getting sick from sheer volume of air pollution the coal mines are creating in the Hunter,” she said.
“Lock the Gate will tell the Independent Planning Commission on Wednesday that cumulative air pollution already being experienced in the central Hunter is chronic and causing population harm.
“We urge the Commission to refuse approval to the United Wambo project which will substantially add to the overall load of particulate pollution in the area.”
Ms Woods said the way particulate matter was measured in the Hunter was also flawed.
“The air quality assessment being considered by the IPC uses 2014 as the year against which changes in air quality as a result of the new United Wambo super-pit are measured,” she said.
“But data from the Office of Environment and Heritage shows that for eight of the nine nearby air quality monitoring stations, PM10 pollution concentrations were lower in 2014 than the average of the last seven years.”
Recent Reachtell polling[2] showed 84.2 per cent of Singleton and Muswellbrook residents who were questioned agreed that Hunter locals should not be subjected to air pollution levels from coal dust that exceed national thresholds. Close to 70% were strongly in agreement.