Dr Stubbs was engaged by Maitland City Council and Dungog Shire Council in relation to an Appeal against a Development Application (DA) refusal which sought development consent to extract, process and transport by road and rail up to 1.1 million tonnes per annum of quarry materials over a 25-year period from the Martins Creek Quarry.
The DA involved modifications and changes to the existing activities at the Quarry which would have resulted in impacts within the Maitland City Council LGA and Dungog Shire Council LGA. These included the quarry product being transported using a combination of road and rail with the DA seeking an increase to the maximum amount of quarry product which could be transported by road, resulting in more truck movements, as well as rail loading, maintenance and related activities which could occur 24 hours per day, with up to three trains in a 24 hour period.
Dr Stubbs prepared a Social Impact Assessment for both Maitland and Dungog Councils and gave evidence as to the impacts in the locality of the Quarry as well as along the haulage routes. These impacts included but were not limited to: social amenity impacts (with tangible and intangible dimensions – such as air quality, noise, dust, traffic congestion, visual amenity impacts, loss of community connection, loss of quiet enjoyment of public places); health impacts (both physical and mental); social impacts (related to road and pedestrian safety and traffic-related amenity impacts); social impacts related to distributional equity and public interest.
The Appeal was dismissed and the DA was refused. The Decision can be viewed here.
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