At its August meeting, the council voted to defer the decision until the next meeting to further consider concerns raised about the proposal.
Mr Stephens said the decision again went against the officers’ recommendations to approve the application, including 10 additional planning conditions.
“For this to still be unresolved after five years is an unfortunate indictment of the process,” he said.
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READ NOW“We are working with the State Administrative Tribunal to resolve this matter as quickly as possible to provide certainty and the best possible outcome for all stakeholders.”
Mr Stephens said the report by Strategen Environment – engaged by the City to review the amended plans – confirmed the company’s view.
“To quote the Strategen report, ‘the amended plans will offer superior dust performance’ and ‘acceptable performance can be achieved relative to air quality and assigned noise levels at nearest sensitive receptors’,” he said.
“The previously approved plans were exhaustively assessed by experts who unanimously agreed that the plant would not cause any significant impacts to residents.
“The subsequent improvements over this already acceptable design include the full enclosure of all major plant components, a further reduction in dust emissions by more than 30 per cent and increasing the separation distance from the plant to the residential area by a further 50m.”