IMPORTANT UPDATE

The Blantyre Farms development application for a large scale, 25,000 pig intensive factory farm piggery is both an Integrated and Designated development. Hilltops council is the ultimate and final consent authority for either approval or refusal at local government level. General Terms of Approval (GTA) is however also required from three (3) state government agencies to enable Council to issue any consent, should assessment of the proposal merit its approval. Those agencies are the Office of Environment and Heritage (Aboriginal heritage); Department of Primary Industries – Water (extraction of water); and the Environment Protection Authority (licensed premises for the purposes of waste disposal, including an assessment of odour impacts). For integrated development, council must refuse an application where a relevant state government agency advises it will not issue GTA’s, and council cannot issue any consent until it has received GTA’s from all three state government agencies. As consent authority for this application, council cannot rely solely on the issue of General Terms of Approval by relevant State Government agencies; it must itself be satisfied of the suitability of the development on the site and be satisfied that the impacts of the development have been appropriately identified and addressed and can be appropriately managed over the life of the development. Following the closure of the recent third public exhibition period, 2,300 additional submissions were received by council, bringing the total number of submissions lodged over the three public exhibition periods to approximately 5,000. Subsequent to the review undertaken by the relevant state government agencies, correspondence dated 1 February 2017 to council from both the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) confirms that both EPA and OEH will NOT provide GTA’s for the Blantyre Farms proposal. We are still awaiting details of the anticipated response to Hilltops council from the third government agency, the Department of Primary Industries (Water). It is still likely that the final determination on the application will be made at a Hilltops council meeting in March, however the responses from the EPA and OEH means that council will have no choice but to REFUSE the application. Council is required to undertake a full planning assessment report detailing all reasons for refusal. Council’s media release is as follows: http://hilltops.nsw.gov.au/council-receives-agency-responses-proposed-eulie-piggery/ We will of course continue to monitor the progress of this DA and will further update you all in respect to the Hilltops council March 2017 meeting when we expect the Blantyre farms council report will be presented for a final decision.