August 30, 2018
Australia

Confusion over wind farm blade

The hole for the blade has now been filled in - so where will it go? | Steve Evans | Glen Innes Examiner | August 30, 2018 | www.gleninnesexaminer.com.au

The hole the council dug for the wind farm blade has been filled in, prompting the question of whether Veness Park has now been ruled out as a site.

There is to be a special meeting next week of the Open Spaces Committee which advises the council on the use of parks. It will have a range of options, including Veness Park, but may come up with further suggestions of its own.

The full council will then have to discuss the matter but the next council meeting isn’t until towards the end of September.

The legal position, as its experts see it, is that there would not then need to be a lengthy process of paper-work and perhaps a public meeting. A decision could be implemented quickly. The filling of the hole is a light dust which can easily be removed.

But there is clearly a difficulty in how to get out of the political hole where the council approved a site in March and then unapproved it in August and may or may not re-approve it in September.

The hole dug for a plinth has gone. The hole in which the council finds itself remains.

There are several aspects to the council’s difficulty. Firstly, the heavy-duty vehicles needed to move the blade from the yard where it currently is to its new site (wherever that may be) are still in the area but will not be for long.

There is probably a month of availability left, though there may be ways round that if they leave, perhaps at extra cost. The council is not being charged for the current storage.

There is now a lot of behind the scenes back-biting. One faction feels that the initial decision was taken without consultation by too small a group of people. The other faction feels that the council looks foolish if it makes a decision and then contradicts that decision.

At the next council meeting, the position of mayor is up for selection by the seven councillors. At the moment, the current mayor, Steve Toms, does not have the numbers to continue. Carol Sparks, his deputy, seems to have the votes to take over.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/08/30/confusion-over-wind-farm-blade/