The Moyne Shire Council is urging the developer of the Hawkesdale Wind Farm to heed community concerns in their recent application to amend its planning permit.

The application for an amendment to the planning permit has been lodged with the Minister for Planning and includes removal of three turbines, from 26 turbines to 23.

Addressing Global Power General Australia Pty Ltd (GPG), Moyne Shire Mayor, Cr Daniel Meade strongly urged their Director to review which turbines are to be removed in order to address local community concerns.

“Council is disappointed that the three turbines GPG are proposing to remove from the Hawkesdale Wind Farm are for operational reasons and not in response to community concerns,” Cr Meade said.

“Any change or amendment to the planning permit should see removal of the turbines closest to the township of Hawkesdale to increase the buffer between the town and the wind farm"

“The three turbines that GPG are applying to remove are not near Hawkesdale – if the company are reducing the number of turbines, they should be first removing the ones closest to the town.”

Council will also consider lodging a formal objection to GPG’s amendment application with the Minister for Planning.

“We have been advocating to both the developer and the Minister for some time that any change to the layout of the wind farm should see the turbines closest to Hawkesdale removed or relocated,” Cr Meade said.

“Following Council’s decision in December to undertake independent noise modelling of the Hawkesdale Wind Farm, we’ve also requested that the Minister delay any decision on the amendment application until the modelling can be undertaken.”