See attached minutes below.

The points I draw your attention to include:

– Hanson have only the Water Management Plan, the Koala Habitat Plans and Koala Protection Plans still to be signed off to be able to adopt the IPC consent.

– The Voluntary Planning Agreement (VPA) for the pathway along Brandy Hill Drive plus the bus bays has not yet been signed off with PSC. (I understand the VPA must also be signed off before Hanson can adopt the IPC consent. That infrastructure must be completed before Hanson can expand annual production beyond the current 700,000 tonnes per annum.).

– The petition opposing PSC’s plan to include two road crossings in the pathway was also discussed. (A subsequent post will be forthcoming on the minutes from the December PSC meeting where the petition was addressed).

– PBS trucks and routes were discussed. PBS means “Performance Based Standards” allowing trucks that meet the standards to carry higher loads than normal, but only on roads approved for PBS trucks. Brandy Hill Drive and highways are included on the PBS road network (even though BHD and the intersections at both ends do not meet the standards), PBS trucks cannot use any other route from the quarry eg via Woodville.

– When we receive the link to the approved management plans that will be posted.

Cheers for now.

Port Stephens Council’s (PSC) online information and consultation meeting was held last Tuesday, with a number of residents participating. These were the points that I noted:

• The project is still in the concept phase.
• Consultation has occurred with the bus companies, regarding the best locations for the bus stop bays. The proposed locations were not clearly shown on the map provided.
• The bus stops that were mentioned along Brandy Hill Drive (BHD) included ones at the intersections with Warrigal, Werai and Tandara. Only 1 bus stop was discussed along Seaham Road, which was at Sophia Jane Drive.
• Each bus stop will have bays on both sides of the road. ie for buses travelling in both directions.
• PSC identified two pathway route options.
  Option 1 is their preferred route, which has the pathway in the section between Werai Close (#56 BHD) and #84 BHD on the eastern side of BHD, with the remainder on the south-western side. Option 2 has the pathway all on the south-western side of BHD.
• Under option 1, the road crossings would NOT be zebra pedestrian crossings. They would have pedestrian refuges at each side, but pedestrians must give way to traffic at that type of crossing.
• Both options require power poles to be moved, necessitating brief power outages. Fewer outages would be needed for option 1.
• Both options are likely to require some land acquisitions. ie need to move front boundaries/fences back a short distance. Potentially affected land owners have been consulted.
• Where acquisitions are required, landowners will be compensated based on valuations, and fences replaced at PSC expense on a like for like basis.
• Where the pathway crosses driveways, these too will be repaired/replaced on a like for like basis. The pathway construction will be consistent with the traffic load at each point. i.e. more robust where vehicle traffic is involved such as on access roads and crossing driveways.
• Information about the pathway is provided at:
  https://www.portstephens.nsw.gov.au/live/resident-services/capital-works/2021-2022/brandy-hill-drive,-brandy-hill
  That page has a link to a basic map and concept plan for the pathway. portstephens.mysocialpinpoint.com.au/brandy-hill-shared-path/map#/
• Questions and feedback can be posted onto the above map, as follows:
  Click and drag one of the icons for Thumbs-up, Ideas or Comments to the applicable map location.
  Fill in the details, tick agree to terms, and click “Add Comment”.
  You will receive an email confirmation of your entry.
• Please pass this onto your friends, neighbours along BHD and other stakeholders, to encourage them to provide feedback to PSC via the map.
• Further consultation, design and costing will be undertaken to eventually produce a detailed plan.

Hanson continues to prepare their management plans that require approval before they can apply to adopt the new consent. Once the new consent is adopted, quarry output cannot exceed the previous limit of 700,000 tonnes per year, until the pathway and bus bays are completed.

That’s all for now.

Two things to report.

Firstly, a CCC will be held tomorrow, so we may have more to report on Hanson’s plans for adopting the new consent, after the meeting.

Secondly, as you know, a condition of the new consent is that a shared pathway and bus bays must be completed before Hanson can increase annual output over the current 700,000 tonnes per year.

Port Stephens Council delivered a newsletter to residents this week, outlining the concept plan for the 2.1 metre wide and 4.4km long pathway. See attached.

The website says that design is expected to be finalised by the end of 2021, and construction to begin in 2022, with an estimated budget of $3.4m.

An online information session is planned for residents on 23rd November, 4-5pm. Register to attend on the PSC website:

https://www.portstephens.nsw.gov.au/live/resident-services/capital-works/2021-2022/brandy-hill-drive,-brandy-hill

The Brandy Hill Quarry Community Consultative Committee met last month by video conference. The finalised minutes and photo of the updated quarry entrance sign are included below. Click “Download” to read the minutes.

The two main topics covered were the progress on the management plans and expected timeframe for Hanson adopting the new consent, and PSC’s progress and expected timeframe for the design and construction of the shared pathway and bus-bays.

The first answer is perhaps late 2021 depending on DPIE approval of the draft management plans, and the second is that PSC have made little progress on even designing the pathway.

(PSC officers promised Margarete in a separate meeting, that there would be community consultations regarding the design and route for the pathway. As that consultation with BHSAG has not yet happened, we can only assume that the design work is not even at a draft stage.

The significance of the pathway is that is is a long overdue for the safety and amenity of residents, and for Hanson, while they can adopt the new consent conditions without the completed pathway, they are restricted to the current 700,000 tonnes per annum. Output can only increase beyond that and up to the 1.5m tonnes per annum limit after the footpath and bus-bays are completed.)

The complaints hotline phone number has been added to the sign

Brandy Hill Quarry_CCC Minutes 11-08-2021.pdfDownload