Citing "grave concerns" over council's conduct during the approval process, Belmorgan Property Development director Anthony Kosseris is attempting to halt construction on the Bunnings complex.

He yesterday told the Daily Liberal Belmorgan had applied to the Land and Environment Court to have council's approval over-turned. The hearing is set for July 6.

"Belmorgan is appealing the consent on the (Bunnings) development," Mr Kosseris said. "We have grave concerns about council's conduct in relation to this development and to that end we're pursuing it in the Land and Environment Court."

Belmorgan included the consultancy firm that submitted the development application on Bunnings' behalf in the court application.

Notified by fax at 11.15am yesterday, council currently does not know the basis of the claim.

Council's environmental services director Melissa Watkins said legal advisers were seeking further detail.

"Council's legal representatives are presently seeking a copy of the statement of claim in support of the court application, so at this stage I am unaware of the actual details of the claim," she said.

"When we receive details of the appeal we will be in a better position to assess the issues."

The Windmill Caravan Park on Sheraton Road is currently being levelled to make room for the 12,000 square metre Bunnings mega store. As well Bunnings, council had also approved a 12,000sqm sized bulky goods retail space.

Bunnings was to be part of the long-heralded 40 hectare Blue Ridge development, partly owned by Dubbo City Councillor Kim Williams. In October last year, Cr Williams described the beginning of Bunnings as the "catalyst" for Blue Ridge.

Blue Ridge sold 5.5 hectares of land to Bunnings for their proposed Dubbo store.

Cr Williams was unaware of Belmorgan's application yesterday, and said he could not comment.

Belmorgan recently unveiled new plans for the former World War II RAAF site, applying to build a mixture of residential, retail, and light industrial on the large parcel of land in the middle of Dubbo.

Several years ago, council knocked back its proposal to have the area rezoned to allow bulky goods sales, saying there was enough land already zoned for bulky goods stores.

Bunnings had not responded at the time of going to print.

lynton.grace@ruralpress.com