11 September 2013

Wall's agin' Uriarra Solar

| johnboy
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The Liberals’ Andrew Wall is heading to the barricades for the burghers of Uriarra Village who are aghast that something as useful as a solar power plant might be adorning their neighbourhood:

Member for Brindabella Andrew Wall has today offered the support of the Canberra Liberals to residents of Uriarra Village as they fight to prevent the construction of a large-scale solar power station proposed to be built next to homes.

“The Canberra Liberals believe that the location of this project is completely unsuitable and will heavily impact the rural community of Uriarra Village,” Mr Wall said.

“The proposal as it stands will mean that over 26,000 solar panels mounted onto steel frames stretching over 40 hectares will be located directly opposite Uriarra Village.

“The Canberra community is once again being subjected to the arrogance of an ACT

Labor/Green Government and we believe that residents deserve far better treatment than they have received so far on this decision.

“To add insult to injury residents were unaware that the site opposite their village was being considered for a solar power station until after the Minister made the announcement.

“By all indications, and judging by the tone of all the information available to residents, the large-scale solar project and its location is a done deal.

“The Canberra Liberals urge the ACT Government to rethink the location of this project and caution Simon Corbell against using his call in powers in this instance. The social and economic costs of constructing this project at this location will be enormous for the 100 families that call Uriarra Village home,” Mr Wall said.

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HelenO said :

There are many other reasons which we will need to address once the DA is released. If you want to understand the impact come for a drive out to the area, stop into the village and look across the road, everything you see that is green will be gone replaced with a sea of black panels.

If you want to be involved in town planning, become an employee in the relevant area. Otherwise, stop trying to put your oar in to obstruct and delay government in doing its job to provide us with the infrastructure we need.

The idiots from the “O’Connor Ridge NIMBY” group managed to cost the ACT Ratepayer many tens of millions with their pointless obstruction of a road the entire community needed – it’s time NIMBYs were treated as the irrelevant annoyance that they are.

thebrownstreak69 said :

That doesn’t mean you can just destroy amenity willy nilly.

That’s not the point. The point is that this constant carping about how if someone lives in a community titled property this makes them different to anyone else is a load of rubbish.

davo101 said :

and the magic pixies are not going to fix the potholes in the road.

They don’t? Damn. I thought they were just on strike again.

thebrownstreak699:55 am 12 Sep 13

davo101 said :

HelenO said :

We are against failure to consider 100 families who live in a village as a community title that means we have complete financial responsibility for all the utilities and services, with the exception of a garbage service courtesy of ACT govt

Oh sure, all of the services and utilities; so that’d include: hospital, police force, school system,
power station….. And I’m guessing you built that road out to Uriarra yourselves.

HelenO said :

plus we still pay rates.

Just like every other leaseholder in this Territory. Rates are based on unimproved land values which means the less attractive your area is to live in the less you have to pay. Take this nice little house, if it was in Cook, for example, the rates would be something like $4200 a year but because it’s in the boonies the rates are only $1280; that hospital is not going to pay for itself and the magic pixies are not going to fix the potholes in the road.

That doesn’t mean you can just destroy amenity willy nilly.

HelenO said :

We are against failure to consider 100 families who live in a village as a community title that means we have complete financial responsibility for all the utilities and services, with the exception of a garbage service courtesy of ACT govt

Oh sure, all of the services and utilities; so that’d include: hospital, police force, school system,
power station….. And I’m guessing you built that road out to Uriarra yourselves.

HelenO said :

plus we still pay rates.

Just like every other leaseholder in this Territory. Rates are based on unimproved land values which means the less attractive your area is to live in the less you have to pay. Take this nice little house, if it was in Cook, for example, the rates would be something like $4200 a year but because it’s in the boonies the rates are only $1280; that hospital is not going to pay for itself and the magic pixies are not going to fix the potholes in the road.

CraigT said :

HelenO said :

I am grateful that Andrew Wall is standing up against this because Corbell has blah blah blah

Johnboy, was this posted from the same phonenumber they are all hiding behind these days?

Johnboy, I used my name unlike many on this site that hide behind a screen name.

OLydia said :

I would like to know what are the potential impacts of a solar farm close to Uriarra Village. Are the concerns relating to the building of the farm (noise, traffic etc) or its ongoing operation? Or about possible additional risks to home owners in the event of a bushfire? Or concerns about impact to the visual amennity leading to possible reductions in property values?

I am not trolling – I really want to know. All I have heard is that villagers are upset but am not sure why.

As a village we are pro solar, we are against lack of consultation, we are against a government that has changed leasing agreements to Rural Land that now allows Major Utilities.

There are many things we are concerned about. proximity to the village is one. Failure to consult is another, failure for the ACT government to consider residential or economic impact is a third. This has been considered a done deal since the announcement. There are many other reasons which we will need to address once the DA is released. If you want to understand the impact come for a drive out to the area, stop into the village and look across the road, everything you see that is green will be gone replaced with a sea of black panels.

HelenO said :

I am grateful that Andrew Wall is standing up against this because Corbell has blah blah blah

Johnboy, was this posted from the same phonenumber they are all hiding behind these days?

I would like to know what are the potential impacts of a solar farm close to Uriarra Village. Are the concerns relating to the building of the farm (noise, traffic etc) or its ongoing operation? Or about possible additional risks to home owners in the event of a bushfire? Or concerns about impact to the visual amennity leading to possible reductions in property values?

I am not trolling – I really want to know. All I have heard is that villagers are upset but am not sure why.

Can we just be really clear on this the village is PRO SOLAR. We are pro consultation, we are pro protecting our heritage valleys and Indigenous sites and we are pro our views we worked hard for and paid for.

What we are against is a government that believes it does not need to consult with its constituents.

A government that had this plan in the pipe line since 2010, if not before, and felt no compulsion to provide information for people buying blocks of land.

We are against failure to consider 100 families who live in a village as a community title that means we have complete financial responsibility for all the utilities and services, with the exception of a garbage service courtesy of ACT govt, plus we still pay rates.

We are against a government that in 2012 changed the Rural Leases on NUZ1 and NUZ2 land that means that any ACT rural land with this coding can now legally propose and build a coal or gas fired power station, a sewerage treatment works, major electrical conduits, tunnels and retention basins and dams and you are powerless to stop it.

All ACT residents who live on or near Rural Land should be NIMBY’s we are being ridden rough shot over because someone does not like their plans changed.

There are three equally suitable blocks in the vicinity that would serve this purpose just as well and would not impact on any homes, or views or home valuations.

Tell me, would you like an installation as big as 500 standard house blocks 2.5 metres high surrounded by 2.8 metre fencing, razor wire, security lighting and installation sheds less than 50 metres from your back door and to top that off loose up to 30% of your homes value, if you can sell at all.

If this goes ahead financially my family and many others in the village are completely stuffed. In our case 25 years of hard work saving and doing without will all come to nothing because of one ego. Yes I am a NIMBY and every ACT resident should take the time to think about what this means. Every home purchaser who wants to live or currently does live near Rural Lease could have the same thing happen. This is Stage One.

I am grateful that Andrew Wall is standing up against this because Corbell has done everything behind closed doors over the last three years to make this happen, he has changed lease agreements, he has already printed and released brochures with the solar plants location on it. He has stated “it will be built” and the DA will be signed under his signature……… Fair and equitable I think not.

There used to be a map on the developers site showing the scale of the thing. It is seriously the same size as the village.No surprise they took down the link so people can’t see for themselves what a monstrosity this is going to be. If Corbell is convinced as Planning Minister that the impacts are minor, how about releasing the map that ACT Solar Auctions has of the proposal?

A bit of honesty on the impacts would help people make up their own mind based on facts.

Mike Bessenger3:53 pm 11 Sep 13

IrishPete said :

Where was Mr Wall or the Canberra Liberals when this was happening to Royalla last year and early this year?
IP

What has NSW got to do with the Canberra Liberals?

housebound said :

Mum2two said :

Indeed, we have had to adhere to guidelines whilst building, including fencing etc that do not obstruct these views.

This we haven’t heard before. It explains why the villagers are so annoyed about the whole thing.

It would be good to hear a response from the Minister (or one of his minions) about this.

I heard all the houses were forced to build facing North. The 26,000 solar panels are North right across the road. Seems a stupid place to build a solar farm as it will be very susceptible to bush fires. What sort of fumes would burning solar panels release.

Why didn’t they build hydro electricity into Cotter dam. can’t get much more green power than that.

Commy Corbel Great insurance scam.

Isn’t it interesting – the Canberra Liberals are following a pattern of anti-development activism pandering to NIMBYism.

Mum2two said :

Indeed, we have had to adhere to guidelines whilst building, including fencing etc that do not obstruct these views.

This we haven’t heard before. It explains why the villagers are so annoyed about the whole thing.

It would be good to hear a response from the Minister (or one of his minions) about this.

Where was Mr Wall or the Canberra Liberals when this was happening to Royalla last year and early this year?

There’s very little new on this earth, and having got away with in in Royalla, Mr Corbell is now emboldened to try it on to people who vote in ACT elections.

Recall that having promised Royalla residents that they would have their say on the DA, Corbell then used his Call-in powers. That certainly saved him any possibility of being embarrassed by his departmental planning officials taking a different view from him. But they wouldn’t have had the conflict of interest of being planning officials and solar power officials, like he is the Planning Minister and the Solar Power Minister.

Apparently, Corbell wouldn’t know an ethic if it bit him on the backside. And we wonder why Labor lost the federal election…

Just consult the bloody neighbours before you announce the contracts, Simon. It’s not rocket science.

IP

My thanks to Mr Wall for his common sense approach. As residents of Uriarra Village we were sold a rural lifestyle with views to go along with it. The entire village was built with this purpose in mind. Indeed, we have had to adhere to guidelines whilst building, including fencing etc that do not obstruct these views. We are not opposed to solar. Whilst ideally we would like the solar farm relocated elsewhere, even some consultation as to positioning on the current site would have been appreciated. I’d encourage people to come for a drive and have a look at exactly where the solar farm is to be located. Have a look at the locatin of the houses and get a real feel for the impact this project will have. I guarantee you that you too would be ‘aghast’ if this were your house.

What next? Solar panel syndrome?

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