CLEVELAND Power has pledged to take Redland City Council to court after it voted not to approve a 22-month extension for a proposal to build a power plant at Mt Cotton which was to be fuelled with chicken litter.
Cleveland Power director David Bray said the decision was sheer stupidity and labelled councillors as inadequate.
Mr Bray said the Mt Cotton biomass plant was a green energy source which would have supplied electricity to more than 40,000 homes.
“Ratepayers can expect a legal bill in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, with the result being a delay to a key power supply source, 82 new jobs for the city and a delay to a much-needed and federal and State Government-acknowledged green solution to the current energy crisis,’’ he said.
He said green energy agencies and authorities saw Redland council as a laughing stock.
“There’s a few councillors there who are incapable of grasping key issues and seem more interested in morning tea,’’ he said.
“This project has been over a decade in its planning, involves world experts and scientists from federal agencies to ensure we arrived at a clean energy plant that was world leading.
“It is a project listed as one of the keys to achieving renewable energy targets set by governments and yet a handful of poorly informed non-thinkers who favour morning tea time over realistic decisions is now set to cost the ratepayers big time and place at risk long-term energy security for the city.”
Given council officers had recommended the project should be granted the extension, Mr Bray said Cleveland Power would seek full cost recovery and damages.
Councillors voted against giving the project an extension of time due to it being first mooted in 2004 and being approved by the Planning and Environment Court in 2007.
Councillors believed the project had been so long in the pipeline that many new residents would have moved into the area and not be aware of the proposal or its details. They also argued that the company had not honoured one of the conditions of the project which was to keep community consultation going.
Mr Bray said work on the project had already started with the site cleared and footings in place. “Tenders for construction have been called,’’ he said.
The plant would burn about 60,000 tonnes of chicken litter a year, below the state-approved limit of more than 65,000 tonnes and rid the city of the ecological threat of litter storage, Mr Bray said.
The project would prevent the emission of 120,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas annually and generate enough power to run the city’s biggest private employer, Darwalla Milling and Golden Cockerel, and provide power to homes.
The project would release no odour or toxic fumes and would burn cleanly. It also was set to greatly reduce truck movements on Mt Cotton road as litter would no longer have to be trucked out of the city.
Mr Bray said he was deeply concerned for the future of Redlands in the hands of the current council.
“It’s one of the state’s most outrageous anti-green decisions seen in years, delivered courtesy of the Redland city councillors,’’ he said.
