The four-hectare site at Gonn Rd, Barham, which was bought for the micro-abattoir, has defaulted to community land, after the council did not classify it as operational land within three months of acquiring it.
The council is overseeing the build of the abattoir on behalf of the Murray Plains Meat Co-operative and will own it for at least five years before leasing it back to the co-op.
At an extraordinary meeting on August 12, council resolved to classify the site as operational land after lawyers wrote to confirm the transfer of land into its name on May 18.
However, the matter had actually been settled on April 1, meaning the site was automatically deemed community land for more than a month prior.
The issue was raised by Cr Gen Campbell and the council sought legal advice on the matter, including whether council’s conduct could be argued as reasonable given the short time frame and that there was never any doubt about what the land was going to be used for.
As a result, at Tuesday’s monthly meeting, a new recommendation was put forward to reclassify the site from community land to operational land, a process which could take six to eight months.
The council has successfully applied for more than $2 million in Federal and NSW Government grants and the delay puts at risk the ability for the project to meet the milestones required by the funding bodies.
In the meeting, director of community and economic development John Harvie apologised to council for the oversight and misunderstanding of the act.
“I believe anyone who has followed this matter wouldn’t think council purchased that land for any reason other than a micro abattoir,” he said.
Cr Gen Campbell said she had tried to raise issues regarding the project with councillors in September 2020 but was told to “put up or shut up” by then acting chief executive Brian Barrett.
“I am putting up, because we’ve never been able to discuss this,” she said on Tuesday.
“All my concern is about process, so I want to pursue the process of this council that keeps coming every time.”
Mr Harvie, who was video linked into the meeting, was heard saying “what a load of shit” in response to Cr Campbell’s comments, before retracting and apologising.
Mayor Chris Bilkey had to pull up Cr Geoff Wise, Cr Tom Weyrich and Cr Gen Campbell for comments or arguing during the debate and told the Riv he was disappointed with some of the behaviour in the meeting.
“I think two or three times it was regrettable behaviour and those councillors know enough and have been around long enough to know what’s acceptable and what’s not,” he said.
Cr Bilkey said the council would work diligently with the funding bodies recognising the issues the project faced and to get some leeway on the acquittal dates, and said the project remained viable.
“The implications for an industry that addresses the humane raising and processing of meat is worth supporting and in addition, the economic impact for Barham and the surrounding community is very positive,” he said.
“The council is very much in favour of going forward with that, the vote was seven to one, which indicated close to unanimous approval for the course we’re taking.”
Cr Gen Campbell abstained from voting on the matter and Cr Alan Mathers was not present during the debate due to a pecuniary conflict of interest.
The Murray Plains Meat Co-operative is a group of local meat producers formed in response to the closure of abattoirs in the region.
Chair of the co-operative Lauren Mathers, a pig farmer in Barham, said the setback was extremely disappointing.
“We didn’t know about any of the delays until the last couple of days,” she said.
“We just need to make sure the processes are done properly, and that side of things is sort of out of our hands.
“It gives us more time now to work with local landholders who might be disgruntled about it.
“We just hope now it’s been brought to light that it can just get done and we can move forward with it.”
The micro-abattoir is planned to be a modular, multi-species facility to service southern NSW pork, lamb, beef, goat and poultry ‘paddock to plate’ producers.
The co-operative had hoped it would be operating by Christmas this year.
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