Bentley Quarry: Final rally to halt ‘mega quarry’ fails

Locals battling against the Bentley Quarry have been left gobsmacked after a NSW Planning decision. Here’s why.

Quarry excavators set to start as Blakebrook Quarry gets the NSW Planning green light.

The controversial Bentley ‘mega quarry’ will go ahead, despite fierce resistance from the community.

A Northern Rivers Planning Panel made the call on Wednesday, finding the development “was in the public interest”, after nearly three hours of local residents speaking against the quarry expansion.

Quarry owners, R & S Contracting Pty Ltd, will construct and operate a hard rock quarry (Bentley Quarry) to extract up to 300,000 tonnes per annum and up to 2000 tonnes per day, generating around 140 daily truck movements.

Bentley Quarry gets the NSW Planning green light. Picture: NO MEGA Quarry Bentley strongly opposed the quarry

The previous planning panel hearing in August had been deferred so an independent review of the Land Use Conflict Risk Assessment could be undertaken to address community concerns.

However, speaker after speaker expressed their anger that the existing LUCRA was peer reviewed by a consultant – who found there was no land use conflict.

Rosemary Joseph, a long-time local resident said the LUCRA “alarmingly contained many inaccuracies and misrepresentations”, and “glibly dismissed” community concerns as worst case scenarios.

“This is an outrageous assertion and an insult to the people of our Valley and the wider region,” she said.

“We the community will have to endure the impacts of this enormous quarry for decades.”

Bentley residents have fought back a mega quarry for months.

It’s unclear who will regulate the operation of the quarry, with the approved DA conditions leaving the quarry manager, who is the owner, responsible for all environmental controls, monitoring and reporting, with no oversight from any local council.

“It‘s rather like leaving the fox in charge of the henhouse,” Ross Joseph, Bentley resident of 22 years, told the planning panel.

“The manager is also given sole responsibility over the issue of complaints. He will determine if the complaint is justified and whether or not he will investigate it.

“The manager (could) provide the full details of the complaint to the person against whom the complaint has been made and ask for a response. We assume that this will include the name and address of the (person who made the complaint).”

Bentley Quarry gets the NSW Planning green light despite fierce resistance from locals.

This comes at a time when persons unknown have been trespassing on private property, removing or vandalising signs protesting the quarry expansion, the planning panel heard.

“Many locals feel so intimidated that they would not be game to make a complaint. But there appears to be no other avenue to make a complaint other than through the quarry owner manager,” Mr Joseph said.

“How on earth can the community feel that their concerns will be considered impartial? How can this be in the public interest?”

Local farmer, Craig Armstrong said the community was being treated as badly as when they were fighting against coal seam gas fields just 100m away from the current development site.

“Dozens of properties have been trespassed on and had their signs opposing the quarry defaced or stolen. How have so many become victims to so few again?” he said.

A view over Blakebrook Quarry.

Other’s defying the development said they were appalled at the lack of traffic safety measures, saying the quarry operators had not sufficiently addressed road hazard mitigation for the 140 heavy truck movements on Bentley Rd where school kids catch buses.

Former Lismore City Councilor and practising lawyer, Eddie Lloyd said there is nothing more important before the panel today than the safety of our community and the lives of our children.

“I just hope that this case, our submissions and your decision to approve (the quarry) does not become evidence before a court coroner in an inquiry into the death of schoolchildren killed in a crash outside the Bentley quarry,” she said.

Ben Luffman, Senior Environmental Consultant who peer reviewed the LUCRA said the site had been used as a quarry since the 1960s.

However multiple local residents pointed out that the Quarry was left inoperable for decades until the current owners took over in 2016.

Community advocacy group Beyond Bentley is currently challenging the existing use rights of the quarry that Richmond Valley Council insists that the quarry operator has in the Land and Environment Court.

Represented by Barrister Andrew Pickles, Beyond Bentley is seeking to prove that the Quarry does not have existing land use rights – which could effectively void a decision in favour of the Quarry by the planning panel.