Community opposition to the pulp mill remains steadfast

Responding to the latest announcement made by KordaMentha – receivers of failed Tasmanian timber company Gunns Limited – that the company is: “updating the pulp mill licence sale paperwork”, community groups Friends of the Tamar Valley and Pulp the Mill remind KordaMentha that community opposition to the pulp mill remains just as strong now as it was ten years ago.

The project was first proposed ten years ago – and the opposition to it was due to the inevitable detrimental effect on the health and wellbeing of everyone living in the valley.

“If there’s an investor considering purchasing the pulp mill licence and site they should realise opposition to theTamar Valley pulp mill certainly didn’t end with the collapse of Gunns, and there will continue to be strong and determined community resistance to any company who is considering building it,” said spokesperson Anne Layton-Bennett.

“It is also worth noting that the permit licence must have extremely limited value given Gunns’ timber assets have now been sold to New Forests company, who have repeatedly stated they have no plans to build a pulp mill.

“Tasmanians have been told countless times there are investors ‘interested’ in the pulp mill, but since no investor has ever materialised, it should be abundantly clear to everyone by now there is no serious interest in the project, and rightly so given it has 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 KordaMentha cut their losses and accepted these remaining ‘assets’ are all but worthless. The pulp mill dream will never be accepted by the community. For the majority of Tasmanians it has been nothing but a 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?)

http://ftv.org.au/
Anne Layton-Bennett, Friends of the Tamar Valley, Bev Ernst