Citizens voice powerline fears

Ergon Energy continue to draw criticism from members of the public during their public consultation phase for the proposed high voltage transmission line project between Warwick and Stanthorpe.
Twyfords facilitator John Dengate released proposed criteria for selecting a Community Reference Group (CRG) to design a route for the powerline, drawing lengthy responses of feedback from members of AWARE, the business community, and members of the public.
After consideration of the feedback, the finalised selection criteria has been released recently and will now include three members from AWARE, three members from the process design workshop and six members invited from the broader community.
The new structure has not satisfied all participants involved in the process, however, with local business owner Matthew Hibberd from Lawdogs Australia speaking out: “Whilst it was very positive that feedback offered to the facilitator from numerous people was taken onboard, the new criteria is still heavily skewed towards people not actually living on a proposed line route. Many stakeholders are possibly not going to be represented in this process as the facilitator who is paid for by Ergon Energy has discretion over which applications are accepted onto the CRG”.
“Individuals on the CRG will have to be exempt from civil damages lawsuits from people affected by the new powerline, therefore, the final decision of where the line goes will be made by the board of Ergon after the CRG is disbanded,” Mr Hibberd said.
“Why are we spending all this public money forming a community group that will not result in a binding decision when Ergon themselves have spent two years on this and can’t figure out the best way to do it,” he asked.
“The criteria put forward for the future CRG members to work within is also very restrictive and any changes to the line route will be unfair to new people affected as they will not have had the same amount of information access as those currently on a proposed route,” Mr Hibberd said.
Advertisements for positions on the Community Reference Group will soon be appearing in newspapers; and letterbox drops will be conducted, asking for nominations from the broader community.