Plant & Equipment

Community reacts to DA submission

In November last year, land holder William Theobald told residents in Walang, 11 kilometres east of Bathurst, New South Wales, that he was hoping to establish a quarry on his property to extract basalt.
Theobald has now submitted the Development Application and Walang residents want the local council to reject it. Two public meetings held late last year attracted upwards of 100 concerned people.
Theobald has said the proposed works will be relatively small and the intention is to operate it as a family business. He also said considerable thought had been given to mitigating any adverse impacts from the proposed works, to be outlined in a Statement of Environmental Effects.
Council deliberations
Richard Denyer, from Bathurst Regional Council, said the DA for the quarry was lodged with council just before Christmas.?We have been through the documentation and requested additional information from the applicant in regard to flora and fauna, areas of disturbance and management of the area around the pit,? he said.
?Once that is received, council will go through the formal exhibition process and that includes notification to landholders in that area. In the interim, the DA is available at council and we have already had several residents come in to get a copy. From there, depending on how the exhibition process goes, the matter may go to council for determination.?
Warrick Osborne, who lives over half a kilometre away from where the quarry would be sited, has been a big part of the push against the proposal and has produced a flyer asking people for their support.
Osborne said the area was home to the endangered copper wing butterfly and for this reason alone the quarry development application should be refused. ?If it?s passed, my place wouldn?t be worth a cent,? he said. ?Who would want to live there??
Last year another local, Colin Bembrick said the quarry would have a dire effect on his stargazing, as he is an amateur astronomer.
Source: The Western Advocate

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