By JOLENE OGLE
RAPTUROUS applause greeted Noosa Council’s decision to vote for the refusal of the planned broiler farm for Ridgewood at Monday’s general committee meeting.
More than 60 local residents turned up to the meeting holding placards that read “Vote No”, urging councillors to refuse the development application for a large-scale poultry farm.
The planned farm has been a controversial issue since first entering the council planning process three years ago, with a total of 226 submissions received by Noosa Council, plus two petitions lodged in favour of the development and two petitions lodged against it.
According to a staff report presented to the planning and organisation committee on 10 November, the development application was recommended for approval provided a list of conditions were met.
But at the general committee on Monday (16 November), Councillor Tony Wellington moved a new motion to refuse the application based on a list of reasons such as concerns about odour control and the impact of odour on neighbouring homes, traffic issues, and the possible impact of the development and operation of the farm on the environment.
The motion was carried, with all councillors except deputy mayor Bob Abbot voting in favour of refusing the application.
In his address to the motion, Cr Abbot said there were only two outcomes with any decision made about the broiler farm, both of which would see Noosa Council in court.
“I see two situations we’re going to find ourselves in with any decision made today. One, we’ll be in court with the decision to refuse (the application) with the applicant. Two, we’ll be in court with the submitters arguing that it shouldn’t have been approved … what we could end up with, by refusal of this, is an applicant’s challenge to our decision with our staff sitting in the dock giving evidence against our decision. That’s the reality of it,” he said.
Cr Abbot said he was surprised, given the length of time the applicant had been awaiting an outcome that Noosa Council wasn’t in court two years ago.
“This has been moved from pillar to post,” he said. “We’ve finally got ourselves to a situation that says ‘this is approvable under the Noosa Shire town plan with conditions’ … and we’ve been asked on many, many occasions to defend the planning scheme, but in this case, with this (new) motion, we’re not. We’re being asked to go against the planning scheme.”
All councillors spoke to the motion including Cr Sandy Bolton who said while she supported the motion to refuse the development application, the whole situation had raised issues with the planning scheme.
“My main concern is even though we talk about sustainable farming practices … there are difficulties for (small-scale farmers) in trying to meet compliance because they are all impact assessable,” she said.
“Going forward, there is much work that we need to do to enable us to deliver to the community their request for food security and good, wholesome foods.”
Co-convenor of the No Broiler Farm Cooroy (NBFC) group Rod Ritchie said the vote to refuse the application was a win for “common sense”.
“It is with great relief the community hears this news,” he said. “The stress and distress this application has caused has been massive. Residents have had to put their lives and plans on hold awaiting a decision, have seen property values decline, in some cases losing the rights to fully utilise their land, potentially have their drinking water contaminated, and the possibility of having to live with incessant noise, and with regular pollution events.
“Once you get one broiler farm approved, more inevitably would follow, so thank goodness councillors have voted with the interests of the overwhelming majority in mind.”
Councillors are expected to ratify their decision to refuse the application at Thursday’s ordinary meeting, which will be held at The J, Noosa Drive, Noosa Heads, from 5pm with the meeting to start at 6pm.
Attempts were made to reach the applicant for comment, but no response was received before going to press.
