This is the view of Grahame Danaher, CEO of one of the region’s biggest employers, Westfund Health.

Westfund had its beginnings in a self help venture by mining unions and it is now those union members and their employers under threat.

The PAC will undertake a day long hearing in Lithgow’s Union Theatre today to consider for a second time the application by Centennial Coal for an extension of the underground workings of its existing Springvale Mine.

It is the second time such a hearing has been held and, as was the case with the first hearing in June this year, both supporters and opponents of mining are lining up to have their say.

When applications to speak closed on Tuesday afternoon there had been 40 registrations — three fewer than the previous occasion.

But written submissions don’t close until Thursday and these according to a PAC spokesman were ‘over 500 and counting’.

Mr Danaher said yesterday the hearing is shaping up as one of the most important occasions at least in the district’s recent history.

He said that any refusal of the Springvale development would have implications for the future of the mining industry in general but also for the entire community.

The most immediate implication was for the impact on Mt Piper power station. 

Mr Danaher said Westfund would be among businesses forced to reconsider their expansion plans if Lithgow became ‘a city of retirees’.

“We find it bizarre that the NSW Government has allowed this situation to develop to this stage with survival at stake for more than 300 mining families and the community at large,” he said.

“Positive regional development policies have been too difficult for a succession of governments.”

Mr Danaher said he could not escape the lurking suspicion that ‘something smells’ in the fact that Minister Rob Stokes had called a second PAC hearing after both the PAC and his own department had recommended approval for the Springvale project.

This was particularly the case as Centennial’s CEO David Moult had publicly described the previous recommendation as the most strongly worded in his experience.

“This has something of a smell about it,” Mr Danaher said.

He said it was no secret that even since the prior decision went against them the environmental lobbyists had been seeking just such a second hearing.

“Now it’s D Day for Greater Lithgow with idealism versus realism,” he said.

“Westfund hopes and trusts that wise heads will again prevail and this hearing gives our community some clear air.

“We have to move on from all this uncertainty.”

Mr Danaher said ‘realistic’ people would wonder why the environment movement was paying so much attention to coal when motor vehicles were by far the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gases.

“Coal is seen as more of an easy target,” he said.