A special thank you to the motorcycle riders, the police department; the staff at Cootamundra council, Cootamundra BUG, the Wallendbeen Hotel and their patrons, Aldi Yass, Family Hotel, Toy World, Manwaring Sand and Gravel, IGA, Woolworths, Cootamundra Herald, Cootamundra Development Corporation and 2LF.

IN the November 2016 amended environmental impact statement concerning the choice of road access to the proposed Harden mega-piggery, Edwina Beveridge, of Blantyre Farms states: “Utilising Eulie Road allows access to the grower and breeder site, the Bonoak option would only provide access to the grower site and not the breeder site.” This is an untrue statement.

The property can be accessed by three public roads, Eulie Road, Bonoak Road and Glen Ayr Road, each of which connect to an internal road system which provides access to both the grower and the breeder sites.

Eulie Road passes within 11 metres of a residence. Bonoak Road passes within 220 metres of the closest residence. The closest residence to Glen Ayr Road is 650m. Glen Ayr does not require any significant work to be at a standard that could deal with the truck and traffic flow.

Eulie Road requires the greatest amount of work to deal with sharp corners, causeways, blind hills, many overhanging trees and unsafe site distances to the house, sheep yards. The National Environmental Guidelines for Piggeries states: “Roads used by piggeries must be of a suitable standard for trucks. Where alternative routes are available, those avoiding nearby houses and other sensitive locations like schools, bus pick-up points, halls and community areas should be considered.”

Why does Edwina Beveridge ignore the industry’s guidelines by choosing Eulie Road over Glen Ayr Road? Eulie Road access has the longest public road distance and the shortest internal road distance. Access via Glen Ayr Roafd involves a shorter public road distance and the greatest internal road distance. Eulie Road divides our entire farm, “Carnbrae”, in half. We use it constantly for stock moves to the yards, paddocks, shearing shed and daily work. With the proposed large increase in traffic we would find it difficult to carry out our business safely. Ms Beveridge is well aware of this, but is not prepared to discuss alternative road access with us, nor has she included an analysis of possible access routes in her development application despite requests from the authorities to do so. What has happened to neighbourly consideration? Why would the proponent deliberately ignore her own industry guidelines? 

AS TEMPERATURES soar and reach new records all over the country, please remember that dogs should never be left in parked vehicles, which can become death traps in a matter of minutes.

Even on a mild, 25-degree day, the temperature inside a car parked in the shade can soar to between 37 and 50 degrees in minutes, and on a 30-degree day, the temperature can reach 70 degrees in less than 10 minutes. Leaving the windows cracked (or even halfway down) and/or leaving water in the vehicle will not keep animals comfortable or safe.

With only hot air to breathe, dogs can succumb to heatstroke in as little as 15 minutes, resulting in brain damage or death. 

Please, when it’s warm outside, leave animals at home. If you see a dog left in a car, have the car's owner paged at nearby stores or call 000 immediately.