Questions raised over landholder consultation, agreement with Tamworth council for Hills of Gold Wind Farm

In a submission made on Friday, the director of energy assessments from the DoP asked the proponent to provide more details regarding landholder consultation and agreements with Tamworth council.

"[Engie must] confirm the terms of a Voluntary Planning Agreement agreed with Tamworth Regional Council," the request stated.

"[And] confirm if there is an agreement with Tamworth Regional Council regarding the ongoing maintenance of the retaining walls proposed at Morrisons Gap Road and the details of any such agreement."

The company was also asked to assess the impacts on certain landholders in proximity to the project "that appear to be missing from the assessment".

Further studies are also needed to determine how visual screening such as vegetation, natural topography or tree planting can be used to decrease the 'visual effect rating' for properties with a high or moderate rating.

Engie is not required to respond until May 13, but development manager Meredith Anderson told the Leader it would deal with the request swiftly.

READ ALSO:

"It will require some extra consultation, but we're not anticipating that's an extensive amount of information that's required," she said.

"So we are still anticipating that we should be able to lodge a response to the RFI (request for more information) by the end of this week."

Ms Anderson said Engie's response to submissions, which was released in December 2021, was already extremely detailed.

However, given the size of the project she said it was not surprising to have strong scrutiny and have to undergo these sorts of processes.

"I think our response to submissions was significantly detailed and comprehensive, and as the community is aware it did take us 12 months to make sure that we addressed all of the concerns of the community, and pulled that information together and gave it to the department.

"It's not unexpected for them to come back with RFIs, and particularly for a project of this scale and size that several RFIs are submitted from the department, just to clarify in relation to any information we've submitted.

"So we're happy to continue work with the department to address any concerns or clarifications." Five turbines and more than 200 hectares of land were removed from the initial proposal following public submissions.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: