Sydney Morning Herald
Friday 14/5/2010 Page: 5
A RESIDENTS' action group has had a small victory in reducing the effect on neighbours of a planned wind farm in a court judgment which requires a developer to either buy 13 affected Southern Tablelands landholdings or cut 19 turbines from the development.
But the developer, Epuron, welcomed a precedent set by the court in rejecting the local council's request for a two-kilometre buffer between the turbines and any home not involved in the farm. The Upper Lachlan Shire Council had asked for the buffer, which is specified in its development control plan and that of several other NSWrural councils in areas targeted for wind farms.
A NSW Legislative Council committee which inquired into rural wind farms last year also recommended the setback. The Land and Environment Court has found that 19 planned turbines would have an "unacceptable" visual impact on the properties and some would also suffer from "shadow flicker" and noise at the planned Gullen Range wind farm near Crookwell under planning consent granted by the state government.
The impact would be greater than that estimated by the Premier, Kristina Keneally, when she approved the wind farm as planning minister a year ago, Senior Commissioner Tim Moore and Commissioner Judy Fakes found in their appeal decision. They said that, "the impact on a number of individual properties is sufficiently adverse that the proponent should either acquire them or delete specified turbines from the proposal".
Epuron originally proposed 84 turbines, but after Ms Keneally refused approval for 11 of the turbines last year over concerns they would affect the safety of the Crookwell airfield, it will only be allowed to erect 54 towers unless it buys properties from eight affected owners, the court decided. The company has been given three years to act on the approval.
An Epuron project manager, Simon Davey, said the company was pleased that the court had not agreed to the residents' request for it to refuse the wind farms approval, and it will now go ahead. There will be 73 turbines if the company decides to buy all properties identified by the court, he said. David Brooks, the deputy chairman of the Parkesbourne- Mummel Landscape Guardians, which appealed on behalf of 34 affected members, said the decision was a move by the court towards considering residents when evaluating wind farms.
In a 2007 judgment, the Taralga Landscape Guardians were unsuccessful in having any turbines removed from the wind farm approved in their area and the court's Chief Judge, Brian Preston, said he had to allow the greater public good of increasing the supply of renewable energy to prevail over residents' concerns. Mr Brooks said the court has recognised the rights and needs of "at least some of the people living around this site".
The group's chairman, Bob Galland, said: "Those people right under the towers are now being compensated and protected. They had been ignored by the developer. Most.., had not even been contacted and the Department of Planning did nothing about contacting [them]." However, one neighbour, Humphrey Price-Jones, said the win was so small it was invisible to those who believed they could be forced to move. He said there was a lot of pain and anger among residents.
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