THE LION’S Share of the $20 million Cobbora Transition Fund is anybody’s.
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No one will be excluded from lodging an Expression of Interest (EOI) for some of the $16 million that remains after Dubbo, Warrumbungle, Mid-Western Regional and Wellington councils each claim a guaranteed $1 million.
EOI success will lead to a request by the Cobbora Transition Committee for formal applications for funding for infrastructure projects.
All-important criteria for preparing an EOI or application will be identified by Infrastructure NSW at a forum in Dunedoo next week.
Committee chairman and Dubbo MP Troy Grant tells of the $4 million for the four councils being ready for collection after their projects are approved.
“The rest of the money can flow from July 1,” he said this week.
The fund is being drawn from Restart NSW, established in 2011 to “drive the renewal of key economic and social infrastructure” across the state.
It seeks to boost the economies of the four councils seen by the government to have been affected by what it calls the “dud deal of the century”.
About six years ago the former state government started buying up land at Cobbora for a mine contracted to supply cheap and large volumes of brown coal to power stations.
Earlier this year the current government terminated the contracts and announced it would sell or lease the Cobbora Coal Project after receiving expert advice that it would cost taxpayers $1.5 billion to take to production.
The state-owned Cobbora Holding Company (CHC) continues to seek development approval for the mine.
Last week Dunedoo residents staked their claim for at least 60 per cent of residual funding given the direct socio-economic impact on the town of “70 households with 90 residents” leaving the district because of the mine.
Warrumbungle Shire Council reports of 32,500 hectares of agricultural land changing hands that previously generated $24 million in annual revenue and supported 400 direct and indirect jobs in the region.
Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson claims the city has lost “economic opportunities worth $267 million”.
This week Mr Grant said the four council areas had been impacted “to differing degrees”.
He and the two other members of the committee, Barwon MP Kevin Humphries and Orange MP Andrew Gee, were “focused on making sure that everybody wins out of this”.
“We’ll be mindful of everybody who makes submissions, and take all their views into account,” the chairman said.
Infrastructure NSW will manage the EOI and application stages, but the committee will make the final recommendations to the state government’s expenditure review committee on which projects should be funded.
Mr Grant is promising two levels of “due diligence” and “probity” at every turn.
Infrastructure NSW and CHC will send representatives to the Dunedoo Golf Club on October 9 where Mr Grant will chair the forum divided into three sessions.
The first session from 10am to 12pm is for local government and the third session from 4pm to 6pm for community members.
Landholders who made way for the mine and people leasing properties on its footprint will be among the group taking part in the 1pm to 3pm session that aims to inform the development of an integrated land management plan.
Mr Grant said feedback would help determine deadlines for the EOI and application stages.
