Windfarm Monitors

Crows Nest Advertiser
Tuesday 20/3/2007 Page: 1

A committee has been formed to monitor and review the proposed wind farm development in Crows Nest and Rosalie Shires. Crows Nest representatives are mayor Geoff Patch, council CEO David McEvoy, Greg Suhr (participating landholder) and Gregory Fisher (nonparticipating landholder). Corresponding Rosalie Shire representatives are Cr Noel Strohfeld, Clinton Weber, Desmond Brown and Wendy MacDonald. Wind farm company Allco is represented by Angus Holcombe and Richard Finlay-Jones.

The committee held its first meeting at the Crows Nest council chambers on Friday afternoon. Cr Patch was elected chairman. Angus Holcombe (Allco) said since the issuing of the development consent order on December 18, the company had concentrated on achieving a power purchase agreement with a retailer in Queensland.

"As far as the operational parts of the development are concerned, we haven't completed anything else since that time," Mr Holcombe said. "The next stage of the process is a detailed engineering study to be conducted over the next three to six months." He said Allco was happy that the monitoring and review committee had been formed, as it would help to keep open the communication lines between stakeholders in the project.

No concerns had been expressed by landholder representatives.