The anticipated Community Engagement Review from Andrew Dyer has been recently released.
It is a damning report on the manner in which some developers have been treating communities and landholders.
We have contributed to this report through a written submission, as well as a face-to-face meeting in September 2023 by members of Voice for Walcha.
It was with encouragement that we read through the 9 recommendations, the first two themes dealing with our primary concerns with the experiences we have had in Walcha.
Our strongest message that we have been delivering to the Planning Department, Energy Co and to Andrew Dyer directly, has been;
- The need to regulate developers through an accreditation process, (to avoid inexperienced operators in the system, who are merely flipping contracts with landholders to the nearest developer) and
- To avoid wasting communities’ resources through projects that are poorly designed and located, and not suited to the communities that may host them. These projects should be cut out at the first gate.
Extract from the Review
Things should improve for the community of Walcha that has already felt the fracturing repercussions from developers that the report has identified as being problematic. It is refreshing to see an important report that admonishes the poor behaviour that we all knew was not right.
Extract from the Review
Part of the review was a survey, and the leading questions was;
"Do you currently, or are you expecting to, host renewable energy infrastructure on your property?"
Approximately 50 out of the 250 answered yes - ie, around 20% were, or expected to be, land hosts.
By deduction, 80% were not.
Later in the report, a number of other questions were asked, around the subject of satisfaction with dealings with the developers. The responses from these questions ranged through 92%, 85%, 89%, 85%, 90%, 89%, 93% as dissatisfied. Bottom line, a significant proportion of land hosts are also dissatisfied with the performance of the developers.
Significantly, the review also asked "whether the local community would benefit from large scale renewable energy projects." The following responses were measured.
