EnergyCo have released a refined route for the New England Renewable Energy Zone transmission corridor, but not everyone sees it as being an improvement.
The corridor will now be around 250 meter wide, within a one-kilometre broader corridor, with EnergyCo stating on their website that there are now 20 dwellings within half a kilometre of the corridor compared to 37 in October of 2025.
State Member for Upper Hunter Dave Layzell shared that claims the impact to landholders has been reduced are “a bit of a ferfie”.
“It reduces its impact for a number of landholders, but I’m afraid to say there are still plenty of landholders which are affected,” he said.
“Whilst EnergyCo made a big song and dance about the reduced impacts after meeting with us and meeting with the residents, they have really not listened to the overall problem.”
After Minister Penny Sharpe and her team met with impacted and concerned residents last month the route does now avoid Timor Caves but will still encroach on Glenblawn Dam and the properties of around 160 landholders.
“Whilst they may say that their area of impact doesn’t actually go on top of people’s properties, they can still see it, they will still know about it” Mr Layzell explained.
“They’re still going to be impacted by the overall construction process and everything associated with it.
“This is a project that has a huge economic and social impact on our communities, and therefore it needs the top level scrutiny and unfortunately, I’ve got to say that that has not been applied to this particular project.”
The financial implications have not been clearly spelled out to the taxpayers who will ultimately pick up the bill, as there is yet to be a definitive project costing released.
Mr Layzell is concerned with a lack of answers in this space, given recent Snowy Hydro projects went from estimated $2 million in costs, then blowing out to $40 million, and the Orana transmission project blowing out as well.
“We’ve got these people that are saying ‘we don’t know what the true cost is yet, because we haven’t costed it’, and I just don’t believe that, I actually think they know truly what the cost is but they don’t want to say,” Mr Layzell told The Hunter River Times.
“The people who are actually paying for it don’t even realise that they are going to be the ones paying for it, if you’re a 20 something year old today, you have no idea that you’re about to be smashed billions and billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure projects.”
An environmental impact statement will now be prepared for the reviewed transmission line corridor and once completed, the community will be invited to provide their feedback.
Read about the human impact these transmission lines will have in our Not For Sale with a Belltrees resident here
