The commissioner of the Huon Valley Council believes the much anticipated application for a proposed woodchip mill in southern Tasmania is unlikely to be lodged before council elections in October, and is warning against returning a divided local government. Source: ABC News
In what’s already shaping up as the defining issue of the first elections in four years in the municipality, hundreds of residents packed into the Huonville Town Hall recently to debate the woodchip proposal that is before the tiny town of Dover.
Southwood Fibre, a subsidiary of the Neville-Smith Forest Products Group, announced plans for the $42 million export facility at Strathblane, near Dover, last November.
It had been expected proponent James Neville-Smith would lodge a planning application with the Huon Valley Council, but the plan has been shelved amid an ongoing stalemate with the adjacent, existing Tassal salmon operation at Dover over biosecurity fears.
It has also faced stiff opposition from vocal sections of the local community who fear the project would ruin their tourism industry potential and the environment.
The council was infamously dissolved in October 2016 and its nine councillors sacked by the State Government after mediation attempts to resolve bitter infighting reached an impasse.
State-appointed commissioner Adriana Taylor said there was little doubt the woodchip mill could polarise the community during the campaign to re-elect a local council.
“I think I can pretty much assure people … that I’m not going to be the one assessing this,” Ms Taylor said. “I can pretty much reassure them that if it ever comes before council then it will be after the council elections in October. It could be quite a long time.”
While Ms Taylor said some people would welcome full council scrutiny of the proposal, she warned potential candidates about continuing the council’s divided legacy.
“The last thing I want to see is a divided council come back here,” she said. “We’ve had that in the Huon Valley before — that’s not exactly what we want. And also, we really don’t want single-issue people, we’d like people who are concerned about the welfare and progress of the entire valley.
“I would encourage people on either side of this debate not to make this an election issue as much as they possibly can. Because they would then be ruling themselves out to be at the table for the decision making. It’s kind of counter-productive.”
The meeting was called in response to a petition from opponents of the woodchip project, who stated they “oppose the deep water export facility … on a range of grounds … because the proposed facility has the potential to adversely affect the character of the area and natural and cultural values”.
“We request a public meeting to allow ratepayers and residents the opportunity to hear of council’s intentions and voice their concerns,” the petition read.
Former Huon Valley councillor Mike Wilson, who announced he was running for council and the position of mayor in October, said the meeting appeared to be “ahead of time”. But he said there wasn’t enough information about the project in the public domain and the community deserved answers.
“It really is big as far as the Dover region is concerned and beyond,” Mr Wilson said. “I’m concerned about the division that it creates, neighbour against neighbour, family against family members.
“I’ve seen this happen over many years with this [forestry] industry. I think it’s going to be very important that the community leaders we have out there listen to the community. Listen to the industry, listen to the planners, but at the end of the day listen to the community. That’s what it’s about.”
Ms Taylor said the council had received 317 public submissions in the lead-up to the meeting: 247 in favour of the woodchip proposal, 63 against the mill plan, and seven undecided.
She emphasised any application from Southwood Fibres would have to first to the Environment Protection Authority before proceeding and, there would be a public consultation process.
Mr Wilson warned the salmon and forestry industries were both “critical” to the region. He said with the project on hold, he could see the application process dragging out “probably until the middle of next year to be honest”.
“That’s my feeling at this stage on something as big as this. “It’s something that’s worried me for years, that we seem to have especially in our timber industry a bit of a civil war that’s always been happening regarding the people that want something like this and the people who don’t,” he said.
“I don’t want to see the community used as a tug of war between the two.”
Development details ‘private property’ Rachel Truman, of the group Far South Future Alliance said it had asked that the council “undertake to protect jobs, so the tourism and aquaculture industries are both at risk under this proposal”.
She said the local general practitioner had also asked council to investigate what she described as the “health risks of the proposals”.
Ms Truman, who was joined by Ms Taylor, said any development application for the woodchip mill proposal should be accessible to the public.
“Huon Valley council does not allow the downloading of development applications (DA) on their website, when and if this DA goes live its over 500 pages long, so its really important for the public to be able to assess it thoroughly,” she said.
Ms Taylor said there was “no problem about access to it, the problem is that we don’t allow people to print it”.
“We have legal advice that says a development application belongs to the applicant,” she said. “Once a DA is live people have access to it, they can see it on their screens, you can download it, you can look at it, you can come into council and look at a hard copy if you want,” Ms Taylor said. “But we don’t allow it to be printed, because once it’s printed then its everybody’s I suppose, it’s somebody’s private property and privacy laws say that that property belongs to that applicant.”
