Councillor Karl Stevens
We now have the ridiculous situation were one property is receiving compensation at 30% above market value, while the property next door has entered the twilight zone of the pulp mill shell game. The driver of these events was Gunns and the arbitrary deadline they had set on securing the easements. Were they really hoping this deal just slipped under the radar? When will anyone have the guts to inform the ratepayers of what’s really happened to their land?
THERE WAS a meeting last Wednesday between the General Manager of West Tamar Council and a representative of Gunns Ltd, who I believe was Greg Stanford, infrastructure manager Bell Bay pulp mill. On issue was the pulp mill pipeline easement that crosses the most densely populated part of our municipality.
This includes critical pipeline infrastructure such as balance tanks. My first question of the general manager was ‘are we being offered the same 30% above market value compensation that all the other landholders on the pipeline route have been given’? The answer I got was no.
Apparently in return for a multi-million dollar pipeline easement West Tamar Council will get a walking trail, that is only just a construction road that Gunns would have to build anyway. Two interesting points are that the meeting was scheduled for the day after our regular council meeting, and that no elected representatives were to be present by Gunns request. I would really like to thank our general manager for doing his job properly and making this information available to myself and the public.
What followed could be called a storm of protest from angry ratepayers, totally opposed to this development, as well as justifiable outrage that their rates have had to go up while Tasmania’s largest company was gifted with their land.
Incredibly, a full year after applying conditions to the pipeline under the infamous Pulp Mill Assessment Act, West Tamar Council is still unable to explain under what legal basis the easement is being transfered to Gunns. Is it a compulsory land acquisition under the same PMAA that they voted ‘no confidence in last year? Is it really being gifted to Gunns or are they buying it? As yet unanswered questions.
We now have the ridiculous situation were one property is receiving compensation at 30% above market value, while the property next door has entered the twilight zone of the pulp mill shell game. The driver of these events was Gunns and the arbitrary deadline they had set on securing the easements. Were they really hoping this deal just slipped under the radar? When will anyone have the guts to inform the ratepayers of whats really happened to their land?
The big worry is that under section 11 of the PMAA, a pipeline burst and residential flooding would mean nobody could sue Gunns for compensation. Preliminary advice is that these properties could not even be insured. I believe these ugly outcomes are the result of a company too arrogant to take the community along with them.
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