Gunnedah Shire to seek bigger slice of mine VPA

Gunnedah Shire Council has requested Whitehaven Coal to more than double its voluntary planning agreement payment to $3.36 million from the Narrabri underground coal mine extension.

The larger VPA amount would cover costs of road upgrades anticipated from the proposed mine extension.

Narrabri underground coal mine is located entirely within the Narrabri Shire Council area.

Doubling down on an earlier statement to NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC), Gunnedah Shire Council’s deputy mayor Rob Hooke reiterated at the second of a two-day IPC public hearing that existing provisions being negotiated in the VPA did not adequately compensate the Gunnedah Shire.

“All council is seeking, irrespective of figures, is that the VPA reflects the impact on the community,” Cr Hooke said.

“It would be negligent of council not to seek to ensure, as a minimum, as with any development, that the community does not bear costs which should be appropriately born by the developer.”

The mining company has applied for development consent to continue longwall mining at its Narrabri mine site in a major southern extension area until 2044.

The project involves the continued use of existing underground and surface infrastructure, including use of the existing coal handling and preparation plant at its approved 11 million tonnes per annum capacity.

A VPA offer was considered in confidentiality at the August 2021 ordinary meeting of Narrabri Shire Council.

At the time, council agreed to temporarily withhold the resolution for the matter during the VPA’s negotiation.

Council staff met recently with the IPC in relation to the proposed mine extension and indicated the new council would need to be briefed on the past council’s decision and the history of the matter.

At the meeting between council staff and the IPC, it was noted that previous councillors had concern in relation to Gunnedah Shire Council’s involvement in a planning agreement as previous decisions had been made purely based on location of the mine.

The commissioners also met with Whitehaven Coal in relation to its proposed project.

Managing director and chief executive officer Paul Flynn told the commissioners the company had devoted significant time to the development of discussions and a potential agreement with Narrabri and Gunnedah shire councils.

“We’ve met with them on multiple occasions and, most recently, on January 21 to provide them with an update on the proposal,” Mr Flynn told the commissioners.

“This is a complex area of VPAs with not often firm guidelines to help you in the negotiations of this. We believe we’ve offered a very significant amount of money for what is a life extension of an existing asset.”

Mr Flynn said previous Narrabri VPAs had been directed entirely to Narrabri Shire Council.

He said the company looked at the traffic movement, which includes not just people in and out of the site going to and from work, but also the traffic movements associated with deliveries.

“That does favour the Narrabri side of things in terms of where our major deliveries are coming from, it would appear,” he said.

Whitehaven is proposing to split the VPA – 60 per cent to Narrabri Shire and 40 per cent to Gunnedah Shire.

The offer to Narrabri Shire Council was $2.66 million and $1.43 million to Gunnedah Shire Council.