Crudine Ridge Wind Farm

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I wish to protest the development of this wind farm on the following grounds:
- the inefficiency of wind turbine electricity production
-the destruction of habitat caused by construction of wind turbines
- the health impacts of noise of turbines
-the reduction of land values of neighbouring properties

Rhonda Brennan
Business Owner and Manager
Busy Bee Service Station and Roadhouse
13th December 2013

To whom it may concern,
I am writing to you today in regards to the proposed Crudine Ridge Wind Farm Pty Ltd (Wind Farm CWP).
As a local business owner I have grave concerns about what impact the above wind farm will cause to the businesses in our township. The problem lies not with the actual Wind Farm, but with the disruption it will create, not only to my business, but to all the businesses along the proposed route, of Horatio Street, Sydney Road and Castlereagh Hwy.
Time and time again businesses in the industrial area on the outskirts of town are affected, due to redirection of traffic and road closures for oversized vehicles. In previous times it has been for a short period while one truck travels through our township. With the new proposed route, there will be up to ten trucks passing along the route daily for a period of four months. This will not cause a slight inconvenience to business, but have a huge impact on our daily income.
I believe that the businesses at our end of town are constantly dealt the raw end of the stick. When the Field Days and other major attractions are held at AREC there is a huge increase of visitors to our town. This creates raised revenue and increased income for the town, but we find that our trade is not affected in any way. Why is this? Because signage is put up on the outskirts of town, to redirect incoming traffic, to travel along Rocky Waterhole Road, completely bypassing our business. When the question was raised with a member of council it was said that it was to prevent traffic build up through the centre of town. The comment was also made "what you lose on the merry go round you make up for on the razzle dazzle". I find this to be untrue. The visitors on their way back out of town have already fuelled their cars and are not stopping for food as they have already done so at the other end of town. It is fine for council to bypass our end of town at these times of the year, but not when it comes to the wind turbine farm.
Being a service station and roadhouse, our main customer base is passing traffic. If the roads are blocked and traffic is redirected away from our front door, we will have no passing trade. The small amount of cars that do pass by, will not want to stop as they have just been sitting up the road for 20 minutes or so, waiting for the oversized trucks to pass by, so that they can continue on their travels.
Another concern is for the trucks that travel the Mudgee roads and through our town daily. This will also have an impact on them. They, by law, have to abide by a log book. They can`t afford the 20 minutes of sitting around taken out of their valuable time on the roads. If they are constantly having to stop for long periods of time waiting for oversized trucks to pass by, they too may choose to use an alternate route. There again, affecting my business.
We are the only truck stop this side of Lithgow that accepts Caltex starcards, and truck drivers are already making comments on the proposed wind farm, and how it will affect them. We have a high number of trucks that use our service station for both fuel and meals, and I am concerned that this too will be impacted.
If the disruption has an impact on my business, as I am sure it will, I will be forced to cut back my hours of trade and on staff and this will in turn have a snow ball effect. My staff also have bills to pay, mortgages, rent, power and phone bills, school fees and everyday living expenses and would in return need to seek employment elsewhere. There will still be the same overhead cost for my business, yet my income will have diminished.
I feel that local businesses have not been consulted, or thoroughly thought about during this proposed wind farm. We received a letter from council regarding the new proposed route. After talking to numerous other business owners, I have found that not everyone received the above mentioned letter, and there was only a small number who replied to it.
The question should be raised, is it really viable for Mudgee, that the wind farm go ahead? It would cause major disruption to our quiet prestigious town, and what affects would it also have to our roads and tourism.
The continuous flow of heavy oversized trucks is sure to have impact on our roads. The constant turning of their enormous wheels around the corners is bound to churn up the tar.
Will it also have a flow on effect to the tourism industry of our town. Who wants to be sitting in their car waiting for oversized trucks to pass through town while you are on holidays? Will this also cause traffic to bypass Mudgee all together, using the Great Western Hwy instead of Castlereagh Hwy? This would be detrimental to our town.

I am concerned that not enough residents are aware of the full impact that the proposed wind farm is going to have. I know that there have been articles in the local paper and it has been mentioned on the local radio station, but maybe there needs to be a broader media campaign, as I have found after talking to numerous people in the past few days, that there is very little that the residents know about what is proposed to happen to our town. I don't know how this can be rectified, but I feel that there needs to be more awareness made for the residents of Mudgee.
I feel that CWP are not being held responsible, for the disruption that this is going to cause the residents of Mudgee, and the lose of income for local businesses. CWP believe that upgrading the most sensible route is too expensive an outlay for them, but have no consideration for the impact that will be caused, by them opting to take the route straight through town.
I hope that you take time to read my letter as it raises many concerns for a great number of businesses and residents of our town.
Yours sincerely
Rhonda Brennan

How can they ride rough shod over a town and its people it is not right.

We do not want large trucks traveling through the main streets of Mudgee. The developer should be required to repair any damage or upgrade the rads that it will use to transport the wind towers into our region.

I oppose the wind farm turbine route past my door and through the town of Mudgee. Compensation will have to be made to all effected residence for noise and traffic disturbance. This proposal will also degrade the roads and make it impossible to rent out my house due to the noise and therefore compensation is needed or an alternative route approved.
Thank you

Aarons Pass Road will require upgrades / Sealing and ongoing Maintenance during the build period.

The road is currently not suitable for the movement of large trucks; canopy and corridor trees will need to be lost. CWP should be responsible for corridor tree replacement, a lot of animal's use those corridor trees's to move between isolated patches of bush which prevent greater numbers of native animals being killed on roads like Aarons Pass.

I'm all for bring jobs to local communities and major projects although the process needs to be managed well so small towns aren't left with a bad legacy.

Dear Sir or Maddam

I am writing to support the Crudine Windfarm within the Mid Western council.
Australia needs more development and industry within the country areas, the bush is slowly dieing ,within the agriculture sector.
Mining in this area has made Mudgee grow, but it must also have a renewable energy industries, such as wind farms to offset the mining.
The Mid Western council must STOP its ANTI WINDFARM push, and do want the people want, letting wind make electricity.

The inconvenience of the building and movement of the towers will be small in comparison to the ever increasing cost of power by coal fired power stations, and yes I understand there are people who do not want to live near the towers, but after talking with people who live overseas eg Germany there are towers in and around villages all over the country, so we need to be more pro active, and as for the trucks moving through town, just time your trips better, as I shall be doing

I have read and seen the new submission and cannot see much difference to the wind farms previous submission in as much as they do not have any regard for the safety and effect their transportations will have on local businesses and ordinary people.
As well as this all I can see in the long term future is a 107 dissused rusting monoliths blighting the Mudgee and areas landscape. If the number of mothballed wind turbines now current in the USA is anything to go by then why is this proposal even being considered.
I and the rest of the people listed in my previous attached letter of objection all continue to strongly object to this total waste of money and environmental destruction.

We need renewable power, short term inconveniences are better that the damage done by events like Fukishima which last many lifetimes.

I support the Crudine Wind Farm Project, however I do not support the proposed route. Mudgee is an extremely busy town and even though I realise that the parties involved have possibly over stated the time and in the case of the applicant probably understated the time it will take to go through town. It takes quite some time for me to get from my street onto Market Street now and if traffic is any slower I may as well just leave the car at home for the duration of the transport of the components. Very difficult when I have heavy items and shopping to transport. Market Street is also very noisy now with these heavy transport vehicles going through on a regular basis I feel it will become unlivable.

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I am protesting against the proposed transport of the Crudine Ridge Wind Farm equipment along Mortimer Street, Mudgee. When I first came to Mudgee thirty years ago the part of Mortimer Street that the proposed route will take was designated for light traffic only. To my knowledge, conditions on this section of road have not changed. No upgrading of the road to take heavy traffic has been performed, certainly not to the extent to provide for the mass of the vehicles that are to be used. If this proposed route is approved I can only see massive damage being done to the thoroughfare as well as great disruption to the lives of the residents living along this proposed route. The proposal to use vehicles of the proposed size and mass through the residential streets of a small rural town such as Mudgee is beyond belief. I would urge that serious consideration be given to an alternate route around the town of Mudgee.

I wish to make a submission in full support of the proposed Crudine Ridge Wind Farm. I am in favour of it for the following reasons
1. I believe Australia should focus on renewable energy whenever it can for the sake of a cleaner environment and the future sustainability of all resources.
2. I am particularly pleased to have a wind farm in our vicinity where there is so much focus on coal mining. We are within 50 kilometres of 3 major coal mines.
3. The 'inconvenience' of the transport issues to set up the wind farm are relatively small time scale compared to coal mining. We have coal mining trucks repaired in our town and they travel the roads along with heavy traffic from the large population of miners working in the vicinity. This traffic has been heavy for some years, and the first coal mine- at Ulan was operating before I came to Mudgee 20 years ago.
4. I am a practicing heritage adviser and am happy to embrace the visual aspect of wind farms being part of the future scape. Rather than finding them detracting I find them interesting, reminding us all that we can do more for the environment.
5. I believe when the transport phase occurs there will be many interested people watching and applauding the event including school children whose future we should have a great interest in.
6. In passing through the town of Mudgee the vehicles may pass my doorstep as it were- being near the corner of Market and Douro Streets.
7.While the loads are heavy I do not have any concerns for the heritage buildings nearby. On that particular corner there are two listed buildings dating from1859 and 1860s. Slow heavy loads should not affect them, and they have suffered more from road work in the past that creates problems through base-fill vibration and generally lifting levels of pavements, causing direct issues with underfloor ventilation and water movement.

Therefore I am in strong support and I hope the project does proceed.

I object to Crudine Wind Farm's arbitrary decision to transport an oversize convoy along Castlereagh Hwy. as it is a highway in name only and just a regular two lane road which is vital to Mudgee's commercial and tourism interests with hundreds of vehicle movements every day.
The oversize convoy of windfarm components must go via Hill End Rd with less interruption to Mudgee's daily commerce. and residents' peace of mind.

I support the project because of the following:-
Wind energy is good for the environment as a renewable energy source.
Provides employment, especially during construction.
Boost to local economy both during construction and throughout the life of the windfarm.
Site chosen is ideal with good wind and very little disruption to anyone
Save on carbon emissions
Bonus to district of improved access to Sydney with Aaron's Pass roadwork by the developer
I believe the advantages far out-weigh any short-term disadvantages of this project

To whom it concerns,

I object to the proposed Crudine Ridge Wind Farm because;
The workforce that is required to travel along Aarons Pass Road each day, will significant increase in traffic and will dertiate the road beyond repair compared the few people that use it daily now. With the extra traffic traveling along the unsealed road more dust will be produced then there is now. This extra dust in the air will affect my health and the contained rain water that I need to drink. The dust will also affect my veggie garden which I grow for my own use. The dust will also lay on my solar panels will affect my power producing ability that I rely on to live.
There is no mention in the report online of how this hazard will be controlled.
I propose that the road be sealed at least 2km each site of each residence before any construction starts. If this doesn't happen than I suggest that least one water cart is on hand for each part of dirt road, 24/7 for the suggested 18 months of the project to control the hazard of dust from the road.

Regards,
Carron D Smith