JIM FAGAN
Noosa Council will decide tonight if it will seek legal opinion on the amount of rock that can be taken each year from Kin Kin quarry when it starts full operation.
“We owe it to the Kin Kin community and those who use the Kin Kin-Pomona Road to provide some sort of answer to the capacity of the quarry,” Councillor Tony Wellington told the council’s general committee on Monday.
He said in 2003 the then Noosa Council had extended the life of the quarry with the clear intent of having no increase in the existing scale and intensity, otherwise a new application for a material change of use would have been needed. The then owners, Ready-mix, had estimated the capacity of the quarry to be 140,000 tonnes a year.
“In 2010 court action by the Kin Kin Community Group contested the quarry’s approval and it was the decision by the judge was that the quarry operators had a legal right to proceed. “However, there are aspects of the judgement that raise questions about the limits of the quarry operations.
“Quotes from the judgement suggest that, while the Ready-mix plans were never formally approved by Noosa Council, the judge said, that in reality they were approved. Furthermore the judgement notes that the Ready-mix capacity of 140,000 tonnes was the estimate at the time of the council’s decision.
“So, putting two and two together, Council’s decision was not to allow an increase and it could be argued that this meant no increase on 140,000 tonnes. This is not setting a new limit on the quarry but an attempt to determine if the Ready-mix limit has actually always been in existence which the court judgement tends to suggest.”
The committee decided to recommend to Council that legal clarification be sought by CEO Brett de Chastel regarding council’s ability to determine the annual capacity limit of the quarry in light of the council motion of 2003 and Judge Dodds” judgement in 2010.
Another recommendation to the Council asks for a letter to be sent to the Department of Transport and Main Roads advising them of concerns that Kin Kin-Pomona Road is not of an appropriate standard and design to cater for additional quarry trucks.
