I am strongly opposed to the Solar farms intended location, it's close proximity to town, and my property. I am located 1300m from the proposed development site, my concerns and the concerns other people at neighbouring properties are simple.

Firstly The Beryl solar farm North Eastern end, is highly visible from the front of our property and if the solar farm goes ahead we will have another one between our property and Gulgong on a parcel of land that is no more than 800m away at the closest point to homes in town.

We will directly look over on the entire operation, which will significantly impact on our views of farmland and outlook towards Gulgong, our property price, and our peace once again.

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Let me be clear I am not against solar farming I believe sustainable energy is a responsible move forward into the future for energy resource harvesting, but the location of these operations also needs be responsible. Solar Farms pose a risk of fire, being located on the edge of a town is high a risk I believe, also neighbouring property's if they don't already would require public liability in excess of $30 million, just to cover themselves if while carrying out works like slashing on their property a fire started and happened to burn out the solar farm, but our property is a hobby farm and this is not a cost I ever thought I would have to consider.

In their DA they have made a statement the extractive works are located directly over the road which refers to a very old quarry that was set far back off the road and has been out of commission for over 20 years the mention of this in the DA implies it is still in working in order to paint a picture that that approving this development on edge of Gulgong would blend in with the aesthetics around it.

This could not be further from the truth as the 2.5m high chain lock and three row of barb wire fence the last 1 km as you enter Gulgong form Castlereagh hwy will be highly visible and everything happening behind that fence, weather the intended native shrubs are planted or not This is not a great impression to make on entering our Historic town for visitors and even locals to love to quite relaxed location. They have not produced an assessment for Historic Indigenous Heritage. Instead chose to summarise the outlines for the Due Diligence Code.

The road they intend for use predominantly for as entry to the site including construction access is Old Mill road which seems like the safer option but this is not marked road and is quite narrow I use this road everyday and occasionally pass oncoming b-double landscaping trucks and you then realise at 100km how narrow that road is. These are barely the extent of reasons we are concerned about the location not to mention the impact it will have on daily life and our peace, It is heartbreaking to pickup everything you own relocated your family invest in a beautiful town like Gulgong and be elbowed out by inappropriately located developments.

I would encourage anyone who have concerns to contact Mid-West council page. The issue is if this makes it threw and the one on the south side of Mudgee it is the beginning of the end for our wine region more will pass and the beautiful rural region we call home will be less beautiful.

- Jade T, Gulgong

Note: Some words have been edited for typos