A diplomatic row is erupting between Lithgow Council and the Blue Mountains Council after the Mountains neighbours voted at their latest meeting to oppose the second power station planned for Mt Piper.
Lithgow Council this week reacted with dismay to the BMCC decision with Councillors saying the action could not be justified on any reasonable grounds.
The matter arose during a Mayoral Minute referring to the announcement earlier this month by NSW Energy Minister Kelly that the government had approved the concept of new 2000 megawatt generating units at Mt Piper and at Bayswater as a means of addressing predicted shortfalls in baseload capacity.
Delta Electricity expects to have construction at Mt Piper under way within two to three years.
But it won’t happen if Blue Mountains Council has its way and it is this that has angered the Lithgow counterparts.
Cr Howard Fisher said the BMCC had voted at its meeting last week to oppose the Mt Piper expansion.
“I was taken aback by their action.
“I don’t see how the Mt Piper plan would adversely affect them,” he said.
Cr Fisher said the expansion would not mean the movement of any further coal trucks through the Mountains nor would there be any other impact.
He said Lithgow had always supported the Mountains when there were campaigns on various issues including opposition to B Doubles on the Great Western Highway.
“I find it somewhat bewildering they would pass a motion along these lines,” he said.
“Now they are urging people to write in trying to reverse the government decision.”
Cr Fisher said the BMCC decision was all the more difficult to understand in light of their serious level of unemployment and the work opportunities their residents find in the Lithgow Council area.
He said residents from Mountains towns from Mt Victoria through to Springwood come to the Lithgow area to work, including many in the mining industry.
“Now they want the Minister to reject the Mt Piper expansion to cut off employment in Lithgow when the project has no disadvantage to them,” he said.
Cr Fisher successfully moved that Council seek a meeting with the BMCC ‘… to find out exactly what their problem is’.
The Blue Mountains action came as a result of a submission to the March meeting by a Greens Councillor, Eleanor Gibbs.
Email a friend