Campaspe Shire councillors have criticised the location of the proposed Cooba Solar Farm in the final council meeting before the local government elections.
The councillors criticised the location as inappropriate and critiqued the Victorian Government’s decision to remove local governments’ say on decisions relating to renewables in their own community.
The Colbinabbin Renewable Action Group, which concerns itself with the Cooba Solar Farm, has expressed concerns about the proposed location on the eastern slope of the Mt Camel Range, which the group claims is “prime agricultural land”.
The motion, put forward by Cr Paul Jarman, was to endorse a submission to the Cooba Solar Farm’s planning application for consideration and assessment.
Additionally, during the meeting on September 16, Cr Jarman sought to add a point to the motion to submit a proposal to the minister for planning asking that the advertised planning application’s period for the Cooba Solar Farm take place outside local government’s caretaker election period, so that the new council would be able to respond accordingly to the advertised planning application.
Cr Jarman, who has previously expressed his disappointment in the solar farm’s proposed location, said that while renewables were here, the government needed to be careful about placing them in rural communities with little consultation as to where.
“There is other choices and in other places … this is an economic decision they made (for) a solar farm that ultimately could go somewhere (else) and it could still meet the needs of our energy renewables,” he said.
“The Mt Camel Range is 450m high, it goes for over 30km long, of which you’ll be able to see this (solar farm) for over 20km.
“The panels are 8m high in the middle of the world’s recognised shiraz-producing communities — for it not to be considered a poor location by the state government would be very disappointing.”
Cr Adrian Weston, who seconded the motion, stated that the Mt Camel Range would be “one of the most inappropriate” locations regarding visual impact.
Cr John Zobec suggested that Melbourne take the brunt of the renewable energy infrastructure.
“I certainly believe that this state government doesn’t want (solar farms) in their own backyards,” he said.
“Stick it in Melbourne somewhere ... put it on the roofs, there’s no problems there.”
Cr Daniel Mackrell expressed his scepticism about the project itself, but also with the “interesting timing” of councillors’ advocacy and concern with this project in relation to local government elections approaching.
“I’m not against solar farms, but what I am a little bit wary of is that we’re right near a council election, and we’ve had several solar planning things go through over the last three to four years,” he said.
The motion was carried, with all nine councillors voting to endorse the submissions.
In August, the developers of the Cooba Solar Farm released a community update notifying concerned residents through a newsletter that the pre-planning permit application had been lodged with the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning and a public notice of the application for planning permit would be towards the end of September for a period for 28 days.
In August, a petition with 1362 signatures was tabled in parliament by state Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland, expressing the Colbinabbin community’s concern with the solar farm’s location and asking for reconsideration.