Community opposition to the pulp mill remains strong

Responding to the announcement made by Korda Mentha’s Mike Smith – receivers of failed Tasmanian timber company Gunns Limited – that the company is negotiating with: “the parties who expressed interest in the pulp mill”, community group Friends of the Tamar Valley remind Mr Smith that community opposition to the pulp mill remains just as strong now as it was ten years ago when the project was first proposed due to the detrimental effects it will have on the health and wellbeing of everyone in the valley.

“Any investor considering purchasing the pulp mill permits should realiseopposition to theTamar Valley pulp milldidn’t stop with the collapse of Gunns, so whoever may consider building it will meet with strong and determined community resistance,” said FTV spokesperson Anne Layton-Bennett.

“Tasmanians have been told countless times there are investors ‘interested’ in the pulp mill, but since none have ever materialised, it should be abundantly clear to everyone by now there is no serious interest in the project, and rightly so given it never made economic sense, the approval process was corrupted, and no proper risk assessment has ever been undertaken,” Ms Layton-Bennett said.

“It’s time Korda Mentha cut their losses and accepted pulp mill dream is over. For the majority of Tasmanians it has beena ten-year nightmare,”Ms Layton-Bennett concluded.

Reference:
http://members.jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2014-08-22/story/cloud-chemical-smell-settles-over-glynn-academy-sickening-one-student
(Given the high incidence of power outtages do we really want to risk this type of situation occurring in the Tamar Valley and Launceston?)
Anne Layton-Bennett, Friends of the Tamar Valley