{"id":322334,"date":"2022-08-04T14:37:58","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T04:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=322334"},"modified":"2022-08-04T15:36:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T05:36:36","slug":"residents-launch-solar-farm-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/08\/04\/residents-launch-solar-farm-petition\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents Launch Solar Farm Petition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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South Burnett residents John Armstrong and Neil Labuschewski with Mayor Brett Otto examine plans for the Kingaroy Solar Farm at a recent meeting organised by opponents to the project held at the 1913 Council Chambers in Kingaroy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

August 4, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

A group of local residents opposed to the construction of a solar farm on the outskirts of Kingaroy has launched a petition calling for a change in solar farm guidelines.<\/p>\n

The residents claim the current State Government guidelines are not supported by law so there is no way to hold any project proponent to account for the way in which they engage with the host community.<\/p>\n

Work to construct the Kingaroy Solar Farm, on Kingaroy-Barkers Creek Road, is now due to begin at the end of September and be completed by August next year.<\/p>\n

The work schedule, and plans to mitigate disruptions to local property owners, were discussed at a public meeting in Kingaroy organised by project developer Mytilineos in early June.<\/p>\n

Since then opponents to the project have held several meetings themselves, with another planned at the 1913 Council Chambers in Edward Street, Kingaroy, from 5:00pm on August 11.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their latest move has been to set up a change.org petition<\/a><\/strong> and distribute paper petitions around the community.<\/p>\n

As at August 4, 173 people had signed the online version.<\/p>\n

The opponents claim the solar farm will increase traffic and create issues with water run-off.<\/p>\n

They also claim their property values could suffer and are seeking support for “compensation \/ buyout \/ assistance to rental losses”.<\/p>\n

The Kingaroy Solar Farm project, initiated by Terrain Solar, has had a chequered history.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The proposal was initially rejected by the South Burnett Regional Council in 2018 but the decision was challenged in the Planning and Environment Court.<\/p>\n

The final judgment in the appeal case was handed down by Judge Michael Williamson, QC, in June 2019.<\/p>\n

After discussions between the parties, Terrain Solar proposed to make slight changes to its Development Application, which were accepted by Council.<\/p>\n

They included revised vegetation screening, changes to the location of some fencing and a maintenance\u00a0track, as well as revised landscape buffer zones.<\/p>\n

Metka EGN, a subsidiary of Mytilineos, acquired the project in 2019.<\/p>\n