First off apologies for not keeping this as updated as I should but you get that kind of thing.
Been hearing some interesting scuttlebutt this week, I have no reason to disbelieve it given the sources but there is a possibility they could be mistaken. (There does that count as a disclaimer?)
And now to the subject of this posting is our lovely new Scone power substation. Remember that from a few months ago? Well they're still building it, the walls are almost up. From memory it was supposed to take only a couple of months to complete, I wonder if it will be completed by Christmas?
Anyway from what I hear there's been a couple of reasons for the delay, firstly truck bogging. Apparently it's quite a common event, wow who'd have thought it, low lying area, subject to inundation, poor drainage and heavy clay soils? Funny what was it I was saying a couple of months back?
But wait it gets worse, the substation has apparently had to be redesigned, something about the footings not being secure. Now surely an adequate and comprehensive environmental assessment would have identified these site limitations, you'd think that wouldn't you? So the Environmental Assessment they based their determination on has apparently proved inadequate, what sort of assessment/approval process has their redesign gone through? Nothing that I've heard of.
And finally, well possibly not finally but finally on what I've heard (well ok apart from the moat they are going to dig around the station to drain the water away WTF?), where's the trees? C'mon guys, you knocked down a heap of trees and as an offset were going to plant 3000 more. So where are they? I've yet to see them and over what area are they going to be planted, to me if I were planting 3000 trees (that is trees not shrubs and groundcovers) I'd be wanting an absolute minimum of five hectares and even that's getting crowded. So where are they? Even the coal mines start some of their plantings (admittedly they're screening plantings) prior to works commencing. Is it a case that the owner of the land you were to plant them on has said "no"?
I'm really hoping what I've heard has been wrong, but given what I've already seen I fear that it is right.
