Councillors tomorrow night will consider Pinegro Products’ development application for the former Wool Scour site in Mazamet Rd.

Planners have recommended conditional approval.

The company wants to process 25,000 cubic metres of pinebark, sawdust and virgin forest material annually. It has removed an earlier controversial plan to handle 40,000 cubic metres of chicken litter for compost.

That idea met stiff community resistance, leading to an amended development application.

However objectors have seized on wording in the document, stating that it would accept the pinebark, sawdust, virgin forest materials and “other organic materials.”

“The DA clearly leaves the door open for poultry litter with all its contaminants, including the rotting carcasses of poultry to be processed at the proposed facility and Pinegro has made little attempt to disguise that fact. Its plans even include sheds originally designed for that purpose,” one objector wrote.

Pinegro managing director John Van Meel rejected this in his response to public submissions.

“Our DA does not include chicken litter as a raw material input and should be assessed accordingly,” he stated.

In a report to Tuesday’s meeting, Council planners said they had shut down any chance of the plant receiving chicken manure.

A draft consent condition forbids feedstock from including “other agricultural organics, food organics, construction and demolition waste or garden organics.”

The amended DA was notified to 28 neighbours and attracted 24 submissions, the majority objecting.

They raised concerns about odour, dust and air quality, “lack of” community consultation, the appropriateness of the location, threat to public health, impact on existing businesses and proximity to the Mulwaree River, among others.

A health care worker who objected to the DA said potting mix contained pathogens such as Legionnaires Disease, “known to proliferate in still water of a certain temperature.” He feared it could settle in people’s tanks.

Consent conditions require that the material be kept 30 to 55 per cent moist, that sheds be enclosed, and that no dusty materials be kept outside buildings.

Despite the conditions, residents question Pinegro’s future intentions.

“The restrictions are clearly a response to the deep public concern over Pinegro’s plans for a composting plant generally and in particular the likelihood that, once it has got its foot in the door, it will move to upgrade the plant to use poultry litter and other offensive organic materials with all the health risks and smell that involves,” Garroorigang owner Stuart Hume told the Post.

“Council’s report even says this can’t be ruled out.”

He labelled Council’s restrictions on the types of organics Pinegro could use as “confusing and in some cases contradictory.”

But Mr Hume said these conditions could always be modified.

Moreover, Council would have problems trying to enforce them, as it had with other developments in the area.

“Goulburn needs development but not at any cost,” he said.

“An investment of a mere $1.75 million and five new jobs is not worth allowing a smelly composting plant, with or without restrictions, on the city’s doorstep next to the key tourist area. Once it is there, there will be no going back.”

Pinegro did not respond to requests for comment.

Tomorrow’s meeting starts at 6pm and is open to the public.