COUNCIL has voted down a proposal to build a power plant at Mt Cotton which would have been fired by chicken litter.
Redland City councillors moved against the long-standing application mainly on the grounds that since it was first proposed in 2004 and approved by the Planning and Environment Court in 2007 many people had moved into the district.
It was argued that many residents in surrounding suburbs like Redland Bay, Victoria Point, Thornlands and Mt Cotton would not be aware of the proposal or its details.
Councillors went against officers’ recommendations that an application by Cleveland Power to extend a development permit be approved.
The move puts the council at risk of legal action because the proposal has already been approved by the court and no major changes have been made to local or state planning laws that might see it refused on planning grounds.
Cr Murray Elliott moved that the Biomass Power Plant be refused because Mt Cotton and surrounds had grown significantly since the original application was lodged, with new estates and changes of property ownership occurring in this time.
He said there was a lack of awareness about the development in the community, because the last public notification period was in 2005, which meant more than 12 years had passed.
Key elements in the development also had changed since the latest public notification, including the burner and cooling system.
“Therefore, there would be clearly no or limited awareness within the community of the final characteristics of the development,’’ he said.
The applicant also had failed to deliver on conditions in a February 2013 court order regarding community communication.
Cr Paul Gleeson and Peter Mitchell voted against Cr Elliott’s motion, concerned about the cost to ratepayers should Cleveland Power start legal action.
Cr Tracey Huges did not take part in the meeting due to a conflict of interest while mayor Karen Williams was absent.
Cr Elliott warned a large public gallery that residents should not take the vote as a victory because there was nothing to stop Cleveland Power from applying again or taking the matter to court.
He said residents also should not pay much attention to Facebook comments about the bonafides of the application or council processes, because most of those were inaccurate.
The bio-mass power plant proposed to burn about 70,000 tonnes of chicken litter a year to produce 5MW of electricity.
It prompted a bitter reaction from residents who opposed it on a range of issues, including emissions, odours, truck movements, the amount of litter to be held on site and the size of its smoke stack.
Cleveland Power spokesman David Bray has been approached for comment.
