Council voted to seek a meeting with the Premier and relevant ministers to express "the anger and distress of the significant majority of the community", over the Independent Planning Commision decision to refuse the proposed Bylong Coal project.
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The motion was brought to the September meeting on Wednesday by Cr Peter Shelley, as Urgent Business Without Notice, particularly referencing the impact of the decision on Rylstone and Kandos.
"The IPC have procrastinated for over 12 months. They should have made this decision before December and they have caused closures of business down in the Rylstone/Kandos area because they financially just couldn't wait any longer for a decision and they were waiting for KEPCO," Cr Shelley said.
"Just today after the KEPCO decision was handed down, I had three people - which I won't name, it's up to them to tell the community - that they will be closing their doors very shortly because they too were waiting for KEPCO to open up about the economic benefits of flowing through our towns. A lot has been said on social media, a lot by keyboard warriors - but the overriding fact was they showed no empathy whatsoever to our large community and how we needed it.
"So many Australian players, the Charbon Quarry as well as a few other major employers. Rylstone and Kandos have been hangin' on by the skin of their teeth, hoping and praying gets the approval that it deserves and goes ahead and the economic benefits to the towns will help our towns survive."
Cr Des Kennedy called the decision "an absolute catastrophe". And referenced the approval given by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment prior to it being referred to the IPC.
"They were looking for reasons to reject, not for reasons to approve it - to give those communities down at that end of our Council a really good boost," he said.
"They've lost the cement works, the Charbon colliery over the last ten years. I mean, the place is on its knees.
"There are more places for rent, the principal of the school is in dire straits trying to keep children at the school because the numbers are declining. And we have an Independent Planning Commission that looked for things wrong that the Planning Department couldn't find wrong in all their studies.
"They bend over for less than one per cent of the population in this country that seem to have all the power.
"The less than one per cent, the leftie, greenie groups that contribute nothing to running of this country - most of them don't pay income tax. They contribute absolutely nothing to this community.
"They seem - to the politicians or the IPC in particular - seem to listen to them more than to the poor people down there that can't afford to pay their rent or open their shop doors or send their kids to school. It's a crying shame, worse than that. What do you think this says to any investor that wants to invest in this state?"
The proposed project was twice approved by the DPE and twice refused by the IPC (formerly the NSW Planning Assessment Commission), the first time in 2017.
What was proposed was a greenfield mine - open-cut and underground - located in the Bylong Valley about 55 km north east of Mudgee, to employ approximately 650 people during initial construction and 450 workers during operations.
